


Wired

by niallhoranbitches



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: (kind of), Alternate Universe - Non-Famous, Blatant Flirting, Getting Together, Hackers AU, IT Specialist!Niall, M/M, Oblivious Zayn, Slow Burn, but it's pretty chill, idk how to tag this really, loosely inspired by Chuck tv series, mention of a kidnapping
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-15
Updated: 2018-08-15
Packaged: 2019-06-27 21:58:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 37,273
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15694170
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/niallhoranbitches/pseuds/niallhoranbitches
Summary: Zayn hates technology. It hates him almost equally. When his laptop stops working he has to seek help and happens to find a very attractive—and skilled, for that matter—IT specialist. But what Zayn wasn't expecting was the possible outcome of this relation. And he most definitely wasn't expecting to be dragged into some dodgy stuff.





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

> I CAN'T BELIEVE IT'S DONE!! I've been writing it for so so long and it's finally here—finished, beta'd, polished and ready for you to read it. It's my longest work, most detalied plot and it required more work that any other piece that i've written so far. I hope it was worth it and you'd enjoy this as much as i've enjoyed writing it. The plotline was inspired by the Chuck tv series, but only vaguely as it turned out later lmao ;p I don't want to say much about it, I'm just offering it to you as it is.
> 
> BUT! Before we start I wanted to thank my precious amazing Julien who is my writing mentor, my biggest motivator and idk i just owe her my writing life. Which is a pretty shitty life but without her it would be even shittier.  
> Another huge thank you for Clara aka my amazing artist, who happened to also be the cutest person alive and the art she created is the most adorable thing and i fell in love with it as soon as i've seen it :') It was great to work with you on this one <3  
> And again—last but not least—loads of love for the wonderful and patient 1D Collab Crew! If it wasn't for you guys, this fic would probably never happen, so thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to challenge myself :')
> 
> And now... enjoy! <3

“Scoot over a bit, will you?” Zayn said, trying to shoo Chewie away from the couch.

Chewie opened his right eye, lazily glancing at Zayn. Soon enough he went back to sleep, completely ignoring Zayn’s annoyed sigh. For such a small puppy, he was able to take quite an amount of space. Putting his cup of tea down, Zayn picked the puppy up and laid him on his pillow on the floor. Zayn should had expected that it won’t be easy to cure Chewie from sleeping on the couch and that he shouldn’t let him do it from the beginning but he couldn’t say no to the  little ball of fluff.

Giving the dog another rub, Zayn finally plonked himself down on the couch. He took a sip from a cup, swearing under his breath at the still too hot tea. Instead of burning his tongue once again, Zayn picked up his laptop, abandoned here last night. It was incomprehensible how watching only one, 45–minute episode of a TV series was always leaving Zayn at 2am with red eyes and messed up sleep schedule. Truly incomprehensible.

Zayn pressed the power switch. A bit surprised that nothing had happened, he made sure that the laptop was properly plugged in and then tried again. This time it budged, letting out a weird, electrical noise. Zayn decided to ignore it. The device was old enough to do a variety of weird things and he had already gotten used to that. 

What he wasn’t used to was the black screen that appeared instead of the Windows logo. Alarmed, Zayn moved closer to read the text that popped up.

“Boot device not found. Please install an operating system on your hard disk,” Zayn read, brows furrowed. “What the fuck.”

Zayn might be a technological moron, but even he knew that computers couldn’t work without some kind of operating system. And—as far as he was concerned—his laptop had one last night. Those things didn’t disappear out of the blue. Or shouldn’t, at least. And even if Zayn really wanted to delete it, he wouldn’t have a clue how to do that.

Somehow, Zayn was expecting that his all-nighters would turn against himself, but he really wasn’t expecting  _ that  _ kind of punishment. Especially not when he had to place an order to the wholesaler. 

Hoping for the best, Zayn pressed enter a few times, as well as other random buttons, but nothing was happening. So Zayn did the only thing he could do in that situation. He turned his laptop off and on again. Surprisingly, even that didn’t help. 

He was doomed.

The thing was, Zayn really had to order things to the shop. Actually, he should have done that Monday, which was three days ago, but he wanted to deal with the books from previous deliveries first. He had finally dealt with it today, so it was a perfect time to order some of the latest bestsellers that people had already asked for. Sending another glance at his broken laptop, then through the window, at the trees swaying on the wind and back to his laptop, Zayn threw his head back and whined. He really hoped he wouldn’t have to leave the apartment today. Luckily, he was pretty sure there was a service centre across the street.

“Fancy going for a walk?” Zayn asked, bending forward so he could take a look at his dog.

As an answer, Chewie hid behind one of his paws and let out a whine, just like Zayn did a few seconds ago. Chuckling, Zayn ruffled puppy’s ears and stood up.

“OK, fine. You can stay here, you bundle of laziness,” he said, walking out of the room, laptop tucked under his armpit. “But don’t you dare to squeal at the door later.”

The idea of searching for the laptop case was quickly abandoned, since Zayn had probably flung it into some dark corner of his room and hadn’t seen it since. He only got his hoodie on and pulled the hood over his head, hiding a messy bun underneath. Dealing with his hair was quite low on his priorities list right now.

As soon as he left the building, he realised that it was raining. It wasn’t really surprising. Neither the weather or the fact that Zayn had a genuinely unlucky life. Without a better idea, he tucked the laptop under his hoodie and—after sending a black look to the skies and sighting heavily one last time—he left behind the safe dryness of the tiny roof over the front door and run into the rain.

Luckily, it wasn’t a long run. In terms of running and working out, Zayn was as lazy as his dog. Or more actually, since Chewie was a puppy and every dog had phases of being wild and rowdy sometimes. Zayn didn’t.

With his arms still protectively wrapped around his stomach, where the laptop was hidden, Zayn looked around the room. It was just a small, hardware store, slightly stocked with new computers as well as the ones that were halfway taken to bits. It all made Zayn feel a bit… uneasy. What if the technology choose this moment to get revenge for all this times he cursed it?

“Hi? Can I help you?” a nice and slightly amused voice shook Zayn out of his thoughts.

Blinking a few times, Zayn turned his head away from a bunch of colorful cords, sticking out from one of the laptops and looked towards the big counter in the back of the store. Behind it, sticking his head from behind the screen in front of him, was a young—and very handsome, from what Zayn could tell—man. With messy brown hair, bleached blond at the tips, round glasses with thick, black frames and a baby blue button-up, he looked almost adorable. But there was something about his strong jawline, darkened by a barely–there stubble and the smile that supposed to be friendly but looked more like a cocky smirk. Something that made Zayn’s thoughts not strictly adorable.

When the cutely handsome man raised an eyebrow at Zayn, he realised that a question had been asked and he probably should answer it.

“Um,” he started, clearing his throat. “Um, yeah. I have a laptop. A broken one.”

“I'm quite good at fixing those. You think you could drop it by sometime?” the serviceman asked with a chuckle.

Zayn really felt like making an idiot of himself was some kind of useless talent that he'd owned.

“Right, of course,” he said, trying to safely draw his laptop from under his hoodie. “I’ve got it here.”

He took a few steps forward so he was standing close the counter and seeing that the cutie's eyebrow only went higher, Zayn shrugged and said, “I live just across the street and wasn't expecting it to be raining.”

“Sorry to disappoint you but we live on the British Isles.” Zayn sent him an unamused look, but when the blond only chuckled again, Zayn found himself breaking into a smile shortly after, too. “OK, so tell me what's wrong.”

“Huh, that'd be a pretty long list,” Zayn sighed dramatically, but then added quickly, “but right now it's the laptop. I have no idea what happened but there's a text saying something about BOOT device and no operating system? And I can't turn it on.”

“Oh, OK. I see, that's actually a pretty common error,” the serviceman said, pressing the power button on Zayn's laptop. Looking back up at Zayn, he grinned. “Luckily, I'm the best at fixing those, remember?”

Zayn found himself smiling back. All of sudden, he felt a bit underdressed in his oversized, wetted by the rain hoodie, messy bun and a beard that had already lost its rights to be called a stubble. That feeling however—Zayn reminded himself—was completely ridiculous. He was a customer at the service centre, not a guest at a fancy restaurant or anything.

“A few seconds ago you were just 'quite good at it’” Zayn pointed out “I'm impressed with how quickly your skills are raising.”

“Believe me, there's more I can impress you with,” the blond answered and waggled his eyebrows, but he stopped doing that just as quickly.

“I'd really like to see all that, but can we start with the laptop?” Zayn asked with a small laugh. “I need to do something for work and then you can show me everything.”

The man blushed and mumbled, looking down at the device in front of him “Right. The fixing thing.”

Biting at his lower lip, Zayn looked at the guy hunched over Zayn's laptop, at his red cheeks contrasting nicely with pale complexion and tried not to smile. Obviously, it was a failed attempt. Zayn wasn't sure if the blush on the handsome man's face was caused by Zayn trying to casually flirt with him or by his own flirtatious eyebrow waggle, but Zayn wasn't feeling so worried about his outfit anymore.

“Yeah, that's what I thought,” the IT guy said a moment later. “It's nothing serious, one minute and it'll be fixed.”

“Oh my, that's wonderful,” Zayn let out a relieved sigh. “You're saving my life.”

Looking up from the laptop for a moment, the IT guy sent Zayn a smile. It was a very nice smile, Zayn thought. Fixing the glasses that slightly slid down his nose, the blond torn his eyes from Zayn and looked back at the laptop.

“I can show you how to fix it, if it ever pops up again? It's really easy, you just—” he started, but Zayn shook his head.

“Um, thanks but—,” Zayn said and scratched at his chin with a sheepish smile, “I'd rather not. I'm like—really bad at technology. I'm more than sure that I'd mess it up so badly that even your skills might not be enough.”

The blond raised a cautionary finger at him, but the smile was still dancing in the corner of his lips. “Oi! My skills are always enough. My brain is like a computer itself, I'm telling ya.”

“'M sorry, 'm sorry. I don't doubt you, mate,” Zayn raised his hands in surrender. “After all, you're the one who is messing with my laptop right now, I don't want to piss you off.”

“Good choice,” the serviceman said with a laugh.

When his attention was focused back on the laptop, Zayn rested his elbow on the counter and, laying his chin on his hand, he glanced at the screen. The blue text text he saw there meant nothing to him but it seemed to make sense for the IT guy. Zayn watched his long fingers dance on the keyboard. He might had been deleting everything Zayn had on that device and he wouldn't even know. Zayn was surprisingly unbothered by that fact. His eyes slid up the serviceman's forearms, exposed thanks to the neatly rolled up sleeves of his shirt. It was a very nicely fitted shirt, stretching just right across the other man's shoulders. Its two top buttons were unbuttoned. Zayn counted four little moles on his neck, before he decided that staring like that might be a bit impolite. When his eyes skipped up to the man's face, Zayn realised that his cheeks were still reddened and that he was smirking, just like he knew he'd been checked out. He looked up from where he was still tapping on the laptop and met Zayn's gaze. Zayn noticed that the shirt he was wearing had brought out his eyes very nicely. 

What Zayn also noticed was the fact that he was blushing too.

“I'm Niall, by the way,” the blond said eventually. “Since you're so bad at technology you might need me again.”

“Me? Breaking my laptop again? It's more likely than you think,” Zayn laughed and—luckily—Niall did, too. “I'm Zayn.”

Niall smiled at that, before going back to his work. He pressed a few more keys and said, “OK, let's see… Oh, so you're Team Cap?”

Completely caught off guard, Zayn looked up at him. Seeing Zayn's confusion Niall pointed at the laptop with his chin. At the laptop that was working again and showing the Civil War fanart Zayn had chosen as his welcome screen.

“Oh, that I'm—uh, I meant to change it ages ago but always forget to…” Zayn started to explain himself. Nobody had to know that he was a helpless nerd and he really should pick something else in case he'd have to come here again.

“It’s aces.” Maybe he won't change it then. “And, like... same, I'd probably start a war for Bucky myself.”

In that moment Zayn thought that he might be a little bit in love.

“OK, I'm done,” Niall said, shutting off the laptop. “You can do that work thing now.”

“Oh yeah, you're right, I really should get that done,” Zayn reminded himself, taking the computer from Niall. “How much is it?”

In answer to that, Niall only did a half shrug and smiled, “Don't worry about it, it was just a tiny thing. You can just bring me coffee next time.”

Part of Zayn's brain was was really happy at the mention of a hypothetical next time, while the other was highly offended by the implication that he's going to mess something up again. Even if that implication was very true. In compromise, he bit at his lower lip to contain his smile a little and eventually said, “Oi, maybe I'll be able to hold back my destructive skills this time.”

“That might be a good idea, actually,” Niall laughed. “If not though, you know where to find me.”

“I do. Thanks for the help, Niall,” Zayn said, starting to walk backwards towards the door. “And see you next time.”

Another laugh escaped Niall's mouth as he gave Zayn a small wave, “Bye, Zayn.”

***

After another short run in the rain, Zayn got to his apartment a bit breathless, but with a smile still plastered to his face. When he unlocked the door and walked inside, he was greeted by a single bark. Chewie was still laying in the exact same spot, now looking curiously—but not curiously enough to move—at Zayn.

“Sometimes not being a lazy loaf has its advantages, you know?” Zayn said, taking off his damp hoodie and throwing it across the nearest chair. “I just saw the cutest guy and you’d seen him too but you didn’t want to come with me. It’s your loss, buddy.”

***

“You haven’t been able to stop the destruction after all?” was what Zayn was greeted with, entering the service office a week later.

“I have,” Zayn said with a grin. “Not for long, though. Usually breaking things takes much less time for me.”

Niall only shook his head at that, placing down the screwdriver he was holding. His smile was just as pretty as Zayn had remembered, not that he had been thinking about it during the past week. When Zayn approached the counter, he put a to-go cup on top of it and pushed it slightly in Niall’s direction.

“What’s that?” the blond asked, squinting at the cup and then at Zayn.

“The payment for the last time. We’d agreed on coffee, right?” Zayn said.

“Oh, I wasn’t—,” Niall scratched at his neck. “I was just kidding. Wasn’t expect you to actually bring it.”

“Surprise?” Zayn said doing the jazz hands and feeling quite stupid right after. That feeling lessened a bit when Niall just laughed at him and reached for the cup. Watching him take a sniff, Zayn added, “wasn’t sure what to get, but you don’t look like an espresso guy.”

With his eyebrows raised in question, Niall took a sip from the cup. He let out a noncommittal hum and licked his lips. Zayn tried not to stare.

“Who do I look like, then?” Niall asked, smiling.

“Well…,” Zayn hesitated.

To be honest, his only argument was the fact that Niall was to cute to like strong coffee. Which was a pretty weak argument, now that he thought about that.

“Um… Actually, it was just a guess? How wrong was I?” he said, eventually.

“Just a bit. I do like a nice cup of black coffee more often than not,” Niall admitted and added, shaking the cup a bit, “But I also enjoy them fancy lattés from time to time and that one is delicious, if you'd ask me.”

Zayn wasn't sure whether he really thought so or just wanted to be nice. Buying coffee for a stranger could be very tricky, but Zayn guessed he did a pretty good job. Niall really did looked pleased with the drink. Looking at him taking another sip, Zayn gave himself a mental high five.

“Yeah, I know. It's my fave,” Zayn answered, eventually.

“Not surprising. You're too cute to like bitter coffee,” Niall said matter-of-factly.

The realisation of what he had just said was very clear on his face. His eyes widened and a blush bloomed on his cheeks, while he almost choked on the sip of coffee he was just taking. Zayn only looked down at his own hands, trying not to show he was blushing, too. He always aspired to have more like a cool aura, but somehow everyone who know him, was calling him cute at some point—it wasn’t necessarily bad but not exactly what he had aimed for. It must had been the Marvel wallpaper that betrayed him to Niall.

On the bright side, Niall had a similar criteria in judging someone's coffee preferences.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t—,” Niall stuttered. “I meant the cute part but— I mean—Shit, I’m—Did your laptop break again, then?”

After blurting out the last part, Niall scratched at his neck sheepishly and even he made a wry face at his—rather unsubtle—change of topic.

Chuckling at that, Zayn nodded and reached to take off his backpack. He still didn’t manage to find his bag but luckily the backpack was large enough to prevent Zayn from carrying his laptop tucked under his armpit all the time.

“Yeah, it did,” he said. “You might not believe me, but I really don’t do it on purpose.”

“U-hm. What did you do this time?” Niall asked, taking the laptop from Zayn.

“It’s the touchpad. It’s not working. And it did that to itself!” 

Sending Zayn an amused look, Niall mumbled “let me see” to himself, before turning the device on and waiting for the system to boot up.

“Actually…,” Zayn started, looking at the halfway-taken to bits laptop abandoned on the counter. “It’s not anything important, to be honest. I can wait, if you have something else to do first?”

Blinking in confusion, Niall followed Zayn’s gaze and apparently that reminded him that he was actually busy when Zayn walked in. But he only waved a hand at that and smiled, “‘S ok. I have plenty of time to take care of that one, I can take a look at yours first.”

Zayn didn’t complain, propping his elbow on the counter and leaning his chin on it, watching Niall work. At first the blond plugged in an mouse and tried to find out if there was just some setting glitch that disconnected the touchpad. When it turned out there wasn’t, he started to unscrew the bottom part of the laptop. There was something scary in it, but Zayn decided to trust Niall. Especially since he seemed to actually know what he was doing.

Despite being quite busy with taking out the insides of Zayn’s laptop, Niall was able to keep the chatter going. Not that Zayn minded, quite surprisingly. Starting from talking about the new Spider-man film, they somehow skipped to Zayn’s job, Niall’s Irish heritage (as he called it himself) and eventually to discussing whether having a real-life lightsaber would be a good idea. Somehow, it all came out naturally.

“OK, I guess that should do,” Niall said eventually, turning the laptop on after he’d put all the screws back into their places. With a small whoop of joy, he passed it to Zayn to show him it was working again.

“Thanks again, Niall,” Zayn smiled, putting the computer back into his backpack. “Can I actually pay you this time?”

“Um…,” Niall run his fingers through his hair and bit at his lower lip. “If I said I want another coffee as payment, would you come back here?”

Caught off guard, Zayn’s brain needed a few seconds to find the words. When it did, Zayn felt himself blushing and a grin appeared on his face before he could stop it.

“Maybe,” Zayn wanted to play it cool, but he knew he had already failed. Around the time he saw Niall for the first time, probably.

“Then no, you can’t pay me,” Niall said, grinning. “Just bring me coffee next time, yeah?”

“You’d be on a sugar high from all those lattés,” Zayn answered with a laugh.

At that, Niall raised an eyebrow and that side-mouth smile that did things to Zayn’s insides had appeared again. “You plan on coming over that often, then?”

“Bye, Niall!” Zayn only said, waving goodbye from the door. Maybe he did, but he wasn’t going to admit it to Niall just like that.

***

Concerning the fact that Zayn was at the service office about twice a week, he thought that Niall might eventually worked his plan out. He didn’t seem to mind it, though. Quite the opposite actually—every time Zayn showed up, Niall had his sunshine-y smile ready to greet him. It was nice to know that the enjoyment was mutual, Zayn thought. At first, he made sure that he had a proper reason to visit the store. Getting rid of some annoying bug he managed to get on his laptop, buying a new USB cable, because his old was acting up or that BOOT problem popping up again. But eventually he decided that seeing Niall was good enough reason to go to the service office for a quick—or not so quick—chat. It had became a habit that none of them tried to get rid of. 

 

On some ordinary Wednesday morning, Zayn walked into the service office. Raising an eyebrow, he looked around the seemingly empty room, trying to locate the familiar figure. Before he could do anything, he heard a loud—and quite impressive—string of curse words.

“Good afternoon to you too, Niall,” Zayn said with a chuckle.

There was a bang that made the papers laid across the counter jump up slightly and another curse was let out before a blond mop of hair popped up from behind the counter. When Zayn realized what a disheveled state Niall was in, he wasn’t sure whether he should laugh or be concerned and worried.

“What—,” he started, walking closer to the counter. “What happened to you?”

From what he could see, Niall had stains of some kind of dark ink all over his face, his glasses were all covered in small fingerprints, even the blond tips of his hair seemed to be not–so–blond today. Zayn couldn't stop a laugh that escaped his mouth and only intensified when Niall sent him a rather unamused look.

“Can you, please, shut up? Can't you see I'm having a crisis?” Niall asked, his tone distressed.

“I can, quite clearly,” Zayn said, trying to get a grip on himself. “What happened?”

Niall only growled, wiping his face with his hand—which was a pretty bad idea since Niall's hand were in even worse condition than the rest of the ink-covered Niall. Although, Zayn decided not to tell him that right now, just biting at the inside of his cheek to stop a laugh.

“I was talking to the supplier and I wanted to just fucking check which toners we're running out of. And I dropped one, obviously. I wasn't even aware that you can actually break those things like that,” Niall explained, throwing some paper towels into the trash. “OK, I might’ve also stepped on it, but still.”

“I guess you have some destructive skills as well,” Zayn joked, grinning.

“It must be contagious then,” Niall stared at him. “And since it all is obviously your fault, could you just… stand here for two minutes? I just need to clean myself up and call the supplier back.”

Not expecting this talk to take such turn, Zayn only raised his eyebrows at Niall's suggestion. They might not know each other for too long, but Zayn guessed it was long enough for Niall to know what a bad idea it was.

“But—you do realise how bad I am with technologies of all sorts?” Zayn asked just to make sure.

“Yeah, yeah, but you just have to stand on the other side in case someone comes. If they bring something to fix, just tell we'll take care of it and write down some contact info, yeah? If there's anything more, just say I'll be back in a few minutes. OK?” Niall explained, already tugging at Zayn's arm and leaving a handprint on the sleeve of his grey jumper.

“But…,”

“No buts, you'll do wonderful. Besides, I bet nobody will even come in,” Niall said. He didn't give Zayn time for any further discussion disappearing behind the back door.

For a moment Zayn just stared at the door, feeling quite uneasy standing on the wrong side of the counter. He take a glance at the papers scattered across the surface, not understanding much from them. It must had been documents Niall needed to place an order, most of them covered in the blond’s loopy handwriting. The office computer was turned on, The Lumineers’ concert on YouTube paused halfway through. Zayn also noticed Facebook, 9GAG and some sport news site opened on the background tabs and he could very much relate, because he did exactly the same things on the less-busy days in the bookstore. 

Not intending to invade Niall’s privacy in any way, Zayn ignored the computer and sat on the swivel chair behind the counter. Surprisingly, it wasn’t covered in any ink. Taking his mobile out of his pocket, Zayn wanted to pass the time waiting for Niall to come back. But since the Universe hated him, apparently, it wasn’t that easy.

Before he managed to even unlock his phone, the front door opened and someone walked in. With a sudden rush of panic, Zayn stood up, making a step towards the back door. He could hear Niall’s muffled voice, so Zayn guessed he was on the phone with the supplier or something. Biting at his lower lip, he decided that he didn’t have to interrupt him.

Turning around to face the—quite unwanted, at least for Zayn—customer, Zayn told himself that he could totally do that.

The person who walked in was… quite a sight. Young, tall man with brown, wild locks falling down to his shoulders, dressed in a long, black coat from under which a flowery-patterned shirt peaked. He had a pair of glittery-silver boots on and he was cradling a small laptop in his arms. Zayn was quite… intimidated. On the bright side, the stranger seemed quite scared himself.

“Hello, what can I help you with?” Zayn managed to ask eventually.

The strangers stopped looking around the store and turned his heads towards Zayn, making his curls twirl around his face.

“Um. Yeah. Hi,” he said, his voice deep and slow. Getting closer to the counter, he placed the laptop on top of it, carefully. He glanced back at Zayn, with something that looked almost like a pout and said, “I broke it.”

Stopping himself from letting out a laugh or furrowing his eyebrows at the stranger's unusual behaviour, Zayn said, “Well, that's too bad. If you are willing to leave it here for a bit, my friend would do his best to fix it.”

For a few seconds Zayn wasn’t even sure whether the curly-haired man even heard him. He was staring at Zayn with wide eyes for a moment long enough, that Zayn started to worry whether he was still breathing. But then the stranger blinked a few times, focusing back on the reality.

“Would it take long? It’s my friend’s laptop and he always tells me not to take it, because I’d break it. And now I did and I don’t even know what or how.” He seemed really upset about it. “So I really hope it can be fixed before he realises it’s gone.”

Zayn scratched at his neck, looking from the laptop to the troubled man in front of him and then over his shoulder at the—still closed—back door. How was he supposed to know how long it takes to fix a laptop?

“I think it can be done by tomorrow,” Zayn said eventually. Niall was a talented lad, he’d manage. “What about you leave me it, as well as your name and number so we can contact you later today after we take a look at it?”

After he agreed, Zayn grabbed a bunch of sticky notes and wrote down the guy’s contact details and then applied it on top of the laptop. Pleased with his work, he looked up at the man, sending him a smile.

“OK, Mr. Styles. Don’t worry, we’ll take care of it and we’ll give you a call when it’s done, yeah?” he said.

“Yeah, OK. Thank you very much, you’re saving my life,” the stranger said as he walked towards the door and waved Zayn goodbye.

Shortly after his leaving, the back door swung open and Niall walked back to the main area. Turning around on the chair, Zayn sent a look his way. Niall’s face was much more ink–less than earlier, although his cheeks and forehead were a bit reddened, probably from the attempts to scrub them clean. Even his fringe looked slightly damp and less tousled than usual. The only reminder of the mess he made was the small stains on his dark-grey button up.

“I’m just gonna pretend it was on purpose and it’s just an unique, designer’s pattern,” Niall said, rolling up his sleeves. Grinning, he looked up at Zayn. “You like the chair?”

“It’s quite comfy,” Zayn agreed. “I got you a job, though.”

“Really?” Niall raised his eyebrows in surprise and approached the counter to look at the laptop that the curly-lad leaved. “Did they said what’s the matter?”

Zayn shook his head in response. “That guy had no idea how he broke it but he was quite worried, since it’s his friend’s laptop that he wasn’t supposed to touch. And actually—I told him it can be done by tomorrow? I’m sorry but I have no idea how long it usually takes.”

“I left you in charge for a few minutes and you already start bossing me around, huh?” Niall said, raising an eyebrow at Zayn but he was smiling.

“Must be the chair,” Zayn sighed, leaning back on it.

With a laugh, Niall shook head at Zayn and pulled the laptop closer to himself so he could try to turn it on. Feeling guilty about the possibility of giving Niall a lot of extra work, Zayn tried to apologise again, but the blond only waved a hand at him. Supposedly, it was nothing and he didn’t have anything to deal with at that time. Zayn wasn’t sure whether to believe him or not. Either way, he decided it’d be better if he let Niall work in peace. After all he left the flat to go groceries and Chewie needed to be feed. Explaining it to Niall, he stood up from the chair and walked around the counter to the normal side.

“Oh yeah, sure. Just leave me with all the work you got me and go away,” Niall sighed. Seeing the apologising look on Zayn’s face, he added before Zayn could say anything, “I’m kidding, I’m kidding. I already know what’s wrong and it won’t take long to fix it. Don’t worry and thank you for covering for me.”

“You sure?” Zayn asked and after receiving a solemn nod and a smile, he let it go. “OK, gotta go to feed the beast before it chews on my furniture.”

“Bye, Zayn,” Niall laughed. “Talk to you later, yeah?”

They exchanged numbers a few days ago but Zayn found himself smiling every time he reminded himself of that fact. They texted quite a lot and their evening conversations had been slowly becoming another habit of theirs. 

Walking out of the service office, Zayn could see Niall still watching him through the glass door. He sent the blond a small wave, before he started walking down the street. After just a few steps, he realised he’d been heading the wrong way and turned around, trying not to think about the fact that Niall had probably saw that.

***

**From: Me** ****  
hey how's the work going? :D   
_ Wednesday, 8:06PM _

**From: Niall** ****  
the boss chair got to you so much you need to oversee my work ? haha   
_ Wednesday, 8:08PM _

**From: Me** ****  
it's just your chair not a boss chair   
_ Wednesday, 8:08PM _

**From: Niall** ****  
yeah and since im Da Boss ™ it makes it special too obvsly   
_ Wednesday, 8:09PM _

**From: Niall** ****  
and work’s fine fixed the laptop some time ago but i think it has some virus so m trying to look into that too   
_ Wednesday, 8:10PM _

**From: Me** ****  
is it bad?   
_ Wednesday, 8:13PM _

**From: Niall** ****  
dunno really . it's encrypted or something but it doesn't seem like anything good   
_ Wednesday, 8:17PM _

**From: Me** ****  
what if there's a reason it was classified and you're about to discover someone's biggest, darkest secrets?   
_ Wednesday, 8:19PM _

**From: Me** ****  
or some government highest level top secret stuff??   
_ Wednesday, 8:19PM _

**From: Niall** ****  
you're watching too much agents of shield babe   
_ Wednesday, 8:23PM _

**From: Me** ****  
that's like totally not the reason   
_ Wednesday, 8:30PM _

**From: Me** ****  
babe   
_ Wednesday, 8:31PM _

***

The next morning Zayn had been woken up by something heavy on his chest and a warm wetness on his face. With a growl, he tried to push Chewie away and hide under the duvet. Those attempts were stopped by the devil that his puppy was, biting and tugging the covers away.

“You need to go out, needn't you?” Zayn asked, blinking one eye open. “It's forbidden in this household to wake humans up at… 7.30am. You're heartless, Chewbacca.”

Taking the dog off his bed, Zayn threw the covers away and got up, shivering when his feet hit the cold floor. However much Zayn hated getting up, especially at such early hours, he was happy that Chewie went past the peeing-all-over-the-house period. It had been even more exhausting than taking a walk every morning.

Just a few minutes later, Zayn was walking out of his flat, cocooned in two hoodies with Chewie jumping around excitedly. The puppy tugged at the leash, making Zayn move and head towards the nearby park. Every once in a while he had to hide a yawn behind his hand and he started to wonder whether the coffee place nearby is already opened. On the other hand, he had a working coffee machine in the flat. Barely working, since it was his mum’s old one, but still. For such a coffee amateur as himself, it was enough. The only problem was that Chewie forgot he had a purpose in going out, too engaged in sniffing at every single bench, rubbish bin, stick and leaf they’ve passed by. Zayn tried not to get annoyed at that, watching Chewbacca all excited and happy was really nice after all. Overcoming his laziness was one of the things he was willing to do for his dog to be happy. It wasn’t Zayn’s fault that he was just naturally grumpy in the mornings, especially chilly and caffeine-less ones like this.

About four laps around the small park later they were finally ready to go. That might had something to do with a big Irish Setter they’d passed by a few minutes earlier. Chewie had been barking at him as soon as he’d spotted him on the other end of an alley but when they got closer and the Setter let out just one, deep bark, Zayn’s brave puppy stopped being so brave, hiding behind Zayn’s leg with a hopeless whine. The Setter’s owner—a girl with curly hair, big glasses, only a bit bigger than her dog—started to apologise, but Zayn was laughing too hard at his puppy to properly let her know that it was alright. He just waved a hand at her, still smiling when he crouched to calm his traumatised pet. Chewbacca seemed like a very fittable name for that little beast, Zayn realised.

Somehow, while planning the route to the flat, Zayn absentmindedly picked the one that led past the service centre Niall worked at. Or—well—maybe it wasn’t such an unconscious decision, since Zayn’s been thinking about him quite a bit. Especially since yesterday’s evening, when Niall left him hanging after calling him “babe”. And it obviously wasn’t a big deal, Zayn wasn’t planning on freaking out after being called a random pet name. He was just curious why Niall didn’t answer to his text.

Just as Zayn had thought about it, walking down the road with Chewie trotting happily next to him, he spotted someone in front of the service centre. His first guess—quite obviously—was that it’s Niall, but he wasn’t so sure. A black, stretched sweatshirt that the person was wearing and a hood pulled over their head was a bit misleading. What if someone was trying to rob the centre right in front of Zayn? It was a bit after 8 am, so Niall should already be there. What if he’d been hurt by the robber?

Trying to get rid of those—probably ridiculously inaccurate (or so Zayn hoped)—thoughts, Zayn proceeded, sending a quick glance at Chewie. He wasn’t sure if the puppy would be much help in case that really was a robber.

Luckily, it wasn’t. When he walked closer, Zayn recognised the familiar profile, peeking out from under the hood. Maybe he really did watched too much Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. He might had been going a bit paranoid.

“Morning, Niall,” Zayn greeted with a smile, stopping by the door of the centre.

Surprisingly, he hadn’t gotten any reaction. Niall was still busy with unlocking the door, not showing any signs that he had even heard Zayn. Furrowing his brows, Zayn took a step forward to touch his arm, thinking that maybe Niall had his earphones on or something. Before he could that, Chewie barked, nudging Niall’s leg with his nose. 

The latter jumped up, dropping the keys and looked at the dog wide-eyed. Staring at him for a second or two, his eyes travelled upwards, finally stopping at Zayn.

“Niall? You OK?”

Zayn felt the need to make sure, since Niall looked nowhere near being OK. In addition the worn-out hoodie, quite different from what he was usually wearing to work, Niall’s hair was messily dangling over his forehead. Dark circles under his eyes were standing out from the paleness of his skin. His eyes were reddened and seemed absent when he was staring at Zayn. Niall looked like he hadn’t slept a wink last night.

Blinking a few times, Niall looked at Zayn like he had just recognised him. A weak smile appeared on his face.

“Hi, Zayn,” he said with a raspy voice.

“Is everything OK?” Zayn asked again, the worry only growing bigger.

With a sigh, Niall rubbed a hand over his forehead, “Yeah, sorry. I’m just—I had a bad night, couldn’t sleep at all. ‘M just really tired.”

Zayn nodded and bit at his lower lip, feeling a sudden rush of guilt, “Hope you weren’t working on that laptop all night? I’m sorry, I didn’t know it would be such a difficult one, I wouldn’t—”

Before he could finish, Niall started to shake his head, “Don’t worry about it, it’s not that. I’ve just… got a horrible headache. It hadn’t really gone away yet. I just feel a bit… dizzy.”

“You should go home,” Zayn suggested. “You need to rest, you look awful.”

A faint smirk appeared on Niall’s face as he said, “Wow, you really do know how to cheer someone up and give a nice compliment.”

“I’m sorry. But really, though, I’m worried about you. Maybe you should see a doctor? I don’t think such headaches are normal.”

Shaking his head again, Niall looked down at Chewie who was trying to catch Niall’s shoelace with his teeth, but failing, “Nah, I’ll be fine. Just need to sleep, probably. And I’d do just that, I just have to wait for that guy to pick up the laptop.”

“Maybe I can do it?” Zayn offered, watching as Niall crouched down and extended his hand towards Chewie, waiting for the puppy to sniffle it, before petting him. The Irishman looked up at Zayn, but before he could say anything, Zayn continued. “You don’t have to leave me the keys or anything, I can wait here. Or give him a call so he’d let me know when he’ll be here, I live just across the street. That won’t be a problem. And you look like you’re about to pass out.”

Letting Chewie bit at his hand, Niall cocked his head to the side, like he was processing what Zayn just said. He must had been feeling really awful, because after a second or two, he smiled, asking, “Would you really do that? That would be wonderful, but I don’t want to—”

“Of course, Niall, don’t worry about it,” Zayn quickly confirmed, sending Niall a warm smile. “Will you get home by yourself or…?”

“Yeah, don’t worry,” Niall waved a hand at him. Straightening up, he handed Zayn a laptop bag. “The number’s in there if you could give him a call? I… left my phone at home,” he said, zoning out a bit again. 

“I’ll handle it,” Zayn said and somehow his free hand ended up at Niall’s bicep, giving it a small squeeze. “Now go home and rest, yeah?”

Niall looked down at Zayn’s hand on his arm for a moment, before slowly raising his head to meet Zayn’s gaze. He looked almost feverish and Zayn had to stop himself from pressing a hand to his forehead. Instead of an answer, Niall only nodded, the corners of his mouth flew up just a bit.

“Give me a call later and let me know if you’re feeling better, OK?” Zayn asked, letting his hand fall down.

“I will. I’m sorry. And thank you for everything, Zayn.”

After assuring him once more that he shouldn’t be sorry, Zayn watched as Niall—after giving him a small wave—turned around and walked down the street, staggering a bit. Zayn's gaze followed him until he disappeared behind a corner. Trying not to worry too much, Zayn looked down at Chewie, who was happily munching at his leash that he somehow managed to get into his muzzle.

“Stop that, you beast!” Zayn scolded him, freeing the leash and walking towards his flat. “We’ve got work to do. Or I have, since you’re probably gonna pass out on the carpet.”

Chewbacca did just that almost as soon as they’ve entered the flat and Zayn felt the temptation to do the same. However, Niall was more important than that. Or the task Zayn had agreed to do for him. It was about Zayn’s sense of duty, not because of his feelings for Niall. Which he didn’t have, by the way.

Carefully placing the laptop bag on the kitchen table, Zayn opened it in search for this Mr. Styles number. When Zayn called, he answered almost immediately. He was incredibly happy that the laptop was ready, since his friend was starting to wonder about the whereabouts of it and Styles hoped to drop it round, unnoticed. He wanted to pick it up as soon as possible, so he offered to be in the shop in ten minutes or so.

Zayn waited for almost twenty, before an old, a bit beaten up ford rolled into an empty parking spot in front of the store. The young man Zayn saw the last time—looking even more wild than the first time—got out and his face lit up at the sight of Zayn.

“You didn’t have to wait for me here,” he pointed out with that slow voice.

“I know, just—It’s closed today and I just dropped by to give you the laptop back,” Zayn explained.

Styles’ eyes widened a bit at that and his face turned into something that looked apologising. “I’m so sorry for the trouble, I could’ve—”

“No, it’s ok, don’t worry about it,” Zayn said, waving a hand. “I live nearby so it’s not a problem.”

The man didn’t look exactly convinced and after Zayn told him how much the fix will be—bless Niall for writing it on the note with the phone number—he had left a very generous tip. Zayn tried to convince him it’s not necessary, but Styles said something about “saving his life” and “the physical and mental energy costs that had to be borne”. And with that he basically ran to his car, so Zayn really wasn’t in the position to argue. Actually—Niall totally deserved that tip, Zayn thought. Waving to the guy as he tried to maneuver out of the parking spot, Zayn crossed the street with hope that he’d have enough time to eat something before he’d have to go to the bookstore.

***

**From: Me** ****  
so apparently you’re a life-saver and deserve a pretty nice tip, according to that styles guy   
_ Tuesday, 3:23PM _

**From: Me**   
i hope you’re feeling better?   
_ Tuesday, 3:31PM _

**From: Me**   
u alive? if not im gonna keep the money aha   
_ Tuesday, 4:20PM _

**From: Niall**   
u should actually keep the tip , u deserve it . thanks for everything Zayn   
_ Tuesday, 4:21PM _

**From: Niall** ****  
and i’m better . not great but gettin there   
_ Tuesday, 4:23PM _

**From: Me** ****  
i did nothing more than bossed u around for a while and look how it turned out for u :DD glad to hear you’re better. maybe u should take tomorrow off?   
_ Tuesday, 4:24PM _

**From: Niall** ****  
s not ur fault really   
_ Tuesday, 4:29PM _

**From: Niall** ****  
and maybe thats actually a good idea   
_ Tuesday, 4:25PM _

***

After the last time Zayn met with Niall in front of the service store, Niall decided to take two more days off. And Zayn was happy he did, considering what a bad shape he had been into. But on the other hand he was pretty worried that Niall felt  _ so bad _ he needed three days to get over it. Besides, he was always talking about how he liked the job and Zayn knew that he tended to stay after hours to finish something, so his decision seemed quite unusual. Niall tried to calm him via texts, saying that he’d probably been sleeping too little and drinking too much coffee for a while and his body had finally kicked out against him. Which was a good enough explanation for Zayn to stop thinking about it. Everybody needed a few days to just sleep and recharge. 

But that wasn’t the weirdest thing.

The weirdest things started to happen after Niall came back to the service office and Zayn came back to hanging out with him there.

It felt nice—maybe too nice—coming here and be greeted with Niall’s smile again. Zayn might had missed it a bit, but he wasn’t willing to admit it. So what if he enjoyed meeting with a friend who also happened to have the most gorgeous face and the warmest smile Zayn had seen.

“I shouldn't have told you that I felt unwell because of coffee,” Niall sighed, glanced at two paper cups Zayn was holding. “Wasn’t expecting that you’re gonna deny me that.”

“I have no idea what are you talking about,” Zayn said with a grin and handed one cup to Niall. “I’ve always wanted to taste those fancy flavoured teas they have there as well. I’m not buying them because of you.”

Niall squinted his eyes at him, but he took off the lid of the cup and took a curious sniff anyway. The part about wanting to taste fancy teas was actually true and that’s why Zayn decided to bring a different one each day.

“You know that tea has plenty of caffeine as well?” Niall said, a smirk dancing in the corner of his mouth. 

“Why can’t you just be happy I’m being nice enough to bring you this, you ungrateful fuck?” Zayn asked. He was unable to keep a smile from his face, though.

“I’m sorry. Thanks, Zee,” and as to please Zayn, he took a sip from his cup. And burning his tongue, if Zayn could judge from how he sticked it out with a muffled yelp a second later.

“You’re welcome.”

Zayn sat on the high chair on the opposite side of the counter, resting his elbows on the surface. He had no recollection of when the chair had appeared for the first time, it might be around a week into his meetings with Niall became a somewhat regular thing. But it was nice. And it was hard not to think that Niall had put it there especially for Zayn’s benefit.

They were chatting, drinking tea and Niall was tinkering with some laptop he had in front of him. From time to time he was closing it and setting it aside, as if to take a break. It was quite unusual, Zayn hadn't seen him do this before, but maybe it was an exceptionally frustrating bug. However, the way Niall was massaging his temples when he thought Zayn wasn’t looking was a bit distressing. Zayn wasn’t sure whether he should point it out or not.

 

“Go ahead, answer it,” Niall said, stopping in the middle of his story.

“What?” Zayn blinked in confusion. Niall’s talk about some open mic night he saw with his friends a while ago really pulled Zayn in.

“The phone,” Niall explained.

Except… That made Zayn even more confused, since his phone wasn’t ringing. The room was completely quiet, excluding the steady hum of the cooling fan in Niall’s computer. Even the music wasn’t playing. Zayn opened his mouth to say something, but in that exact moment he felt the vibrations of his mobile and the first sounds of Come and Get Your Love started to play. Furrowing his eyebrows at Niall, he took out his phone and glanced at it, warily.

It was Doniya, who wanted to know the next delivery date to the bookstore and whether Zayn will be there to help and also asked if he can work next Saturday, because she wanted to have a day off. He agreed to everything, still watching Niall with the corner of his eyes, too confused to pay proper attention to his sister.

When he hung up, Niall picked up the story as if  nothing weird had happened and Zayn didn't ask.

 

And OK. Maybe Zayn had a tendency to get more paranoid after binge-watching an action-sci-fi TV series, but the truth was that something was up. He couldn’t really grasp what it was but he had a feeling something was off and he wasn’t sure whether the change was a good one or not. It was driving Zayn nuts. Like a bug bite he wasn’t supposed to scratch at, but it was too itchy to resist the temptation. 

Niall was behaving differently. Just small details, that might not catch anyone's attention. But Zayn had spent so much time with the Irishman lately, that he had noticed those subtle chances. An unusual comment thrown now and then, like the phone one or that time when Niall was complaining about “the bloody song being on repeat for ages” even though the office was relatively quiet. The moments when he was zoning out for a second or two, eyes fixed on some random point, looking like he was listening to something. Zayn was getting really worried about him sometimes. But every time he tried to ask Niall if he was OK, the Irishman only blinked, focusing back on Zayn, sending him a smile with a simple “sure, why?” and just carried on whatever he was previously doing.

There were a significant amount of possible explanations that Zayn could think of and  even more that he couldn't, for sure. More or less probable but all of them possible. Maybe Niall was indeed overworked and needed a moment to get back into his rhythm. Maybe he was doing those odd things all the time but Zayn wasn't noticing them at first, too distracted by other Niall-related stuff. Maybe Niall was a psychic. Or maybe Niall had some kind of superpower. Like super-hearing. Which made perfect sense and would explain why Niall could hear things he didn't and why he got so distracted sometimes.

Zayn really wouldn't mind if Niall turned out to be a superhero.

 

The thing was, Zayn really did like Niall. Superhero or not. He liked how quickly they had fallen into this routine of morning chats over a cup of coffee or tea, that Zayn was buying on his way back from walks with Chewie. Then Zayn was heading to work and—more often than not—he was coming back in the afternoons, to spent some more time with Niall and then watch him  close the service office up as they were both coming back to their homes. He also liked how much fun it was to talk to Niall, how easy it was to find topics they both cared about, how quickly Zayn was getting lost in the sound of Niall's voice as he was sharing his opinions or telling stories. Everything was easy and fun and  _ better _ around Niall and Zayn wanted to keep it that way.

The friendship they had meant a lot to Zayn. But on the other hand, there was something about Niall that made him feel in a certain kind of way. That made his insides squeeze, his heart jump and his blood rush in his veins in a manner they rather shouldn't at the sight of a friend. But it wasn't Zayn's fault that Niall kept smiling in that cocky way, that his eyes were so  _ ridiculously _ blue when they were focusing on Zayn and that the entirety of Niall seemed too good for this whole Universe. And there also was a possibility that he had superpowers which was both unfair and appealing.

The unfortunate thing was that—despite all those things that Zayn had learned about Niall so far—he had no idea if there was any significant other in Niall's life. Or any people at all to be honest. It was quite interesting how open and sharing he was about his childhood or his life back in Ireland and yet he was very private about his current one. He was mentioning some nameless friends now and then while explaining a story or something but nothing more. Zayn had never asked, though. So he couldn't really be sure about his love interests. He couldn't even be sure if Niall swinged that way. Maybe there was a smooth way to find out but Zayn had always been rather bad at this whole  _ smooth _ thing. So he had to—discreetly and skilfully—try steering their relation to slightly different track.

 

“Hey, Niall?”

A simple hum of acknowledgement came from under the desk where Niall was messing with the cables for… some reason Zayn didn’t really care about.

“My mum dropped by recently and she brought me a homemade lasagna. The thing’s huge and it will probably go bad before I manage to eat it so I thought… Maybe you’d like to come by and gimme a hand with that? We can also watch a film or summat.”

That was the best Zayn could came up with—invite Niall for a casual movie night, friends do that a lot after all. It could be a bit weird, considering that they hadn’t ever hung out outside the service office, but it was a safe enough bet. Nothing too fancy, no vague questions or awkward declarations were made. Zayn could easily back out of it if Niall wasn’t too convinced. A perfect plan. Maybe with a hint of bribing aka his mum’s lasagna, but it didn’t count since Niall had no idea how delicious it was. And yet, voicing it still made Zayn anxiously pick at the loose thread at his hoodie sleeve.

Instead of an answer, there was a loud bang on the underside of the table. “Fuck,” Niall cursed breathlessly before his face came back to Zayn’s view. His face was a bit red and his hair tousled, making Zayn think of that time Niall gotten ink all over himself and Zayn smiled despite himself. “You’re inviting me over for dinner?”

“Um. I mean–A movie–Only if you want– It’s fine if you’re busy–,” Zayn stuttered, hoping that his face didn’t turn red.

“No, I’m not! Sorry, I just—You surprised me a bit, but sure, I can come. Tonight? And is there really a lasagna involved because if not, you’re just cruel.” Niall grinned.

Slowly reciprocating the smile, Zayn felt his heartbeat calming down, “Tonight’s great and I do promise you a very tasty piece of lasagna, I don’t joke around about such things.”

Letting out a relieved sigh, Niall winked at Zayn and disappeared under the table again. A second or two had passed before he added, his voice a bit muffled by the counter, “Although, I think I like you enough to come even if there wasn’t any promises of lasagna.”

Grateful that Niall couldn’t see him, Zayn bit at his lower lip, quite positive that this time his face  _ did  _ turn red.

 

It was half to six and Zayn was panicking. His flat was never the messiest place so he didn’t have to spend much time on tidying it up. He had already showered and changed into clean clothes. He even managed to put his hair into an artistically messy bun in less than twenty minutes which was quite impressive. Even Chewbacca was calmly chewing on an empty water bottle, not doing the turmoil he usually created. So technically Zayn didn’t have any grounds to feel anxious. Although that had never stopped him before from doing so and neither did it today. 

Pacing around his flat, he moved things from one place only to put them right back a second after, made sure the lasagna was still in the oven and not disappeared in some unexplainable circumstances, checked his reflection in the bathroom mirror now and then even though he still looked exactly the same— except maybe for the slightly maniacal twink in his eye.

If he wasn’t so on edge, Zayn would probably just laugh at himself. He was perfectly aware of how ridiculous his behaviour was, but it didn’t really change anything. It was just—he really wanted to spend a nice evening with Niall. With his friend Niall. Who Zayn happened to find incredibly attractive and interesting, so what, sue him. He wanted to create a slightly date-y atmosphere without implying that it was a date. Because it wasn't. Which led him to question every single decision he had made this afternoon. Will wearing the black—and maybe a teeny bit tighter than his usual ones—skinnies be an implication? Should he take away the tealights he had on the table not to send false signals? Would opening that wine bottle he got as a present for his last birthday betray him?

The last half hour before Niall’s arrival passed on such shenanigans. Zayn was just carrying the Rogue action figure he got from his mum to his bedroom—maybe Niall had already known that Zayn was a hopeless nerd but he didn’t have to  _ know  _ that Zayn was a hopeless nerd—when he heard a knock on the door. Frozen, Zayn stopped in his tracks, sending a terrified look at the door. There should be a buzz of the intercom downstairs first, he wasn’t prepared for that. Sending a glance at the X-Man in his hand and then at the entrance to his flat, Zayn placed Rogue carefully on the cabinet by the door and—taking one last big breath—opened to let Niall in.

The breath Zayn took hitched in his throat the second he saw Niall. Technically his friend didn’t look that different, but the slight changes still caught Zayn off guard. Instead of a nice button-up he had usually worn to work, Niall had a black t-shirt of some band that Zayn hadn’t recognised and a light jean jacket thrown over it with a pair of black skinnies that made his legs look even longer than Zayn originally thought they are. His hair were styled in a messy quiff. The bright, blue eyes were looking at Zayn, not shielded by the black-framed glasses, now hooked on the neck of Niall’s tee. Maybe it was just the change of the setting they were in, but Niall had never looked so hot before and Zayn was having a hard time keeping his hands to himself.

“Hi, Zayn!” Niall greeted with a big smile, apparently not noticing that his host was having a crisis.

If it wasn’t for the happy bark coming from somewhere behind him who knows how long Zayn would just stand there, staring at his friend. Luckily, Chewie was there to save the day. The puppy started to woof excitedly at the incomer, jumping around Niall and trying to climb up his leg.

“Chewie, you’d be a wonderful defender of this household someday,” Zayn said with a laugh. Focusing on a puppy for a moment to calm down seemed like a good idea. He just smiled at Niall and gestured at him to come in.

Slipping past Zayn, Niall shoved something into Zayn’s arms, quickly took off his shoes and plonked himself down at the floor in Zayn’s hall. A giggle escaped his mouth when Chewie took the opportunity and hopped on his lap, trying to lick at his face.

Tugging at the puppy’s ears playfully, Niall said, “Oh so you’re the vicious Chewbacca I keep hearing about? It’s nice to meet you and I don’t know what Zayn meant, I feel pretty defeated right now.”

It turned out that focusing on the dog wasn’t the best idea. Because now the dog was having the time of his life, being pet by Niall. And Niall seemed like he was having the time of his life as well, sitting cross-legged on Zayn’s floor playing with Chewie who was resting his paws on his chest. Zayn tried not to be helplessly endeared by the sight in front of him. Although, it was a battle he was destined to lose and he was fully aware of that fact.

“My ma always told me it’s impolite to visit someone and come empty handed, so I’ve bought some beer on my way here,” Niall said, glancing up just for a second before he looked back at Chewbacca. Zayn tried not to be jealous.

“You did?” Zayn asked. When Niall send him a funny look and then pointed with his chin at the thing in Zayn’s arms. When Zayn glanced down, he realised that—indeed—he was cradling a bunch of beers. “Oh yeah, you did. That’s great, thank you but you didn’t have to do that.”

Niall only waved a hand at him, letting Chewie bite his other one. Shuffling from one foot to the other, Zayn made a vague gesture towards the kitchen, mumbling something about putting the beer in the fridge. There wasn’t a reason for him to feel left out, Chewie deserved the attention after all. Zayn just had a purpose in going to the kitchen. After putting off the bottles, Zayn opened the oven to check on the lasagna—it was still cold, since he didn’t even turn on the oven yet. He was about to put the kettle on, wondering if Niall would like some tea first, when he heard a voice behind his back.

“The most adorable thing,” Niall said with a smile clear in his voice.

“What?” Zayn glanced over his shoulder, not really sure what Niall meant.

“Adorable,” Niall repeated, eyes focused on Zayn. After a split second a blush started to bloom on his cheeks and he added, “Chewie, I mean. You—He’s the cutest pup.”

Furrowing his brows at Niall’s reaction to his own words, Zayn smiled at his friend and turned back to the cooker, lighting up the ring.

“I know. Although he can be a real pain in the arse sometimes,” Zayn said, turning on the oven.

“Well, I’m not an expert, but I’m afraid that’s just how the puppies are. You can’t have everything, Zayn.”

Zayn just rolled his eyes but a smile was still plastered to his face, “Thank you, Captain Obvious. Want a cuppa before we start on those beers you’ve brought?”

Soon enough the tea was made and the food was almost ready. Despite Zayn’s suggestions, Niall didn’t want to wait in the living room but instead he started to rummage through Zayn’s cupboards, trying to locate the plates and cutlery so he could set the table when Zayn was checking on the lasagna. A few times—three or four, not that Zayn was counting—when they were dancing around each other in the tiny kitchen, Zayn felt Niall’s arm brushing his back accidentally. Zayn tried not to think much about it, although, it still sent tingles down his spine for whatever reason. 

“You've just gained his endless love,” Zayn said, placing the oven dish on the kitchen table. When he started to put the food on the plates, Niall looked up from where he was feeding Chewbacca the dog biscuits he nicked from the counter.

A huge grin appeared on Niall's face before he answered, “Good. Now I'll have to visit you more often so you won't forget how much you love me.”

He was talking to the puppy. Zayn knew that. And again, Zayn wasn't jealous of  all the attention—Niall's attention—the puppy was getting. Besides, the idea of Niall coming over more often was a very nice one and Zayn was willing to take it, didn't matter who was responsible for it.

“His hierarchy is based on the amount of belly rubs and treats he's getting, so you really should,” Zayn answered, taking a seat opposite Niall.

“Well, his priority list looks similar to mine,” Niall laughed. He stood up to wash his hands before he joined Zayn at the table and examined the plate in front of him.

A proud smile—on behalf of his mum since she was the one who made the lasagna—appeared on Zayn's face when he saw Niall's eyes lighting up at the sight of food.   
“Here's your treat then,” Zayn joked, making Niall chuckle as well. “I can give you a belly rub later, too.”

“You always know how to please a man, Zayn,” Niall winked at him and started eating.

To hide the idiotic smile that appeared on his face and a blush to match, Zayn looked down at his plate and stuffed a forkful of lasagna into his mouth. A pleased—and almost sexual—moan Niall let out a second after tasting the food really didn't help Zayn to compose himself. Swallowing down the bite, Zayn mumbled a thank-you for Niall's compliment and tried to change the topic. It was a rather cumbersome effort but it worked.

“That was absolutely delicious. Your mum is my hero,” Niall sighed, pushing the empty plate aside and leaned back on the chair with a content smile.

“She’s mine too,” Zayn laughed, taking a sip of an already cold tea. “You want some more?”

“Look.” Niall raised a finger with a serious look on his face. “There are very few things I’d like more than that right now. But I’ve already had a huge second serving and another bite will probably kill me. That would be a good death, but a death nonetheless. So I have to say no.”

Zayn rolled his eyes with a barely held laughter. Taking the plates, he stood up to dump them in the sink, “You could’ve just said no.”

“But then you wouldn’t get the point!”

Putting the lasagna leftovers—even with Niall’s help they weren’t able to finish the whole thing—to the fridge, Zayn grabbed two beer bottles and turned to Niall with a smile.

“Wanna move to the couch now, so we can put on a film and digest all that happiness?”

Niall grinned and stood up from his chair, “You know me so well, Zaynie.” He said and winked, taking the beers that Zayn handed him and walked towards the living room as Zayn gestured him to.

After a second or two, while Zayn was putting crisps in a bowl—they might had been full, but he was more than sure the crisps would be gone before the film starts—he heard a yell from where Niall disappeared just a moment before, “Don’t think I’ve forgotten about the belly rubs I was promised!”

With a heavy sight and a blush creeping back up his neck, Zayn took a bowl and followed his friend to the living room. This would be more difficult than he had expected.

Although, when he entered the living room and sat on the couch beside Niall—who already had a lapful of Chewbacca—Zayn was faced with something way more difficult than his teeny tiny crush on his friend. They had to pick a film to watch and it always took Zayn ages, before he decided to rewatch the same old series or animated films he had known by heart. After a long minutes of scrolling through Netflix, with Niall’s chin resting on his shoulder, they had got nothing. Eventually, Niall had suggested they could watch Jessica Jones, since both of them wanted to start with the series so it was a good motivation to do so. It took almost no effort to convince Zayn and they agreed to watch first two or three episodes. Besides the fact that Zayn was very curious of that series, it made a perfect opportunity to invite Niall over more often. He had a feeling that Niall was already willing to do that, but it didn’t hurt to have an extra bribe.

The time went by, the crisps were long gone and the episodes were passing one after another as Zayn and Niall were sinking lower and lower on the couch. Before Zayn could realise, it was half to one in the morning, they were halfway through the season and Niall was asleep, his head pressed into Zayn’s shoulder, with—also asleep—Chewie on his lap. It was probably the most adorable image Zayn had never seen and he didn’t want to move so he won’t disrupt that peaceful setting. Even though his whole body was already becoming a bit stiff. He was willing to bear with it. He reached for the remote to turn the volume down.

And that—of all things—made Niall flinch against his shoulder and he slowly blinked his eyes open.

“Wa ‘appen’?” he mumbled partially into Zayn’s arm, before he pulled himself into more upright position.

“Um—,” Zayn started. It took him a moment to tear his eyes away from the adorable sight that a sleepy Niall was. “We got a bit carried away with the series, I think.”

Rubbing at his face Niall tried to wake himself up a bit. He ran a hand through his hair, tousling it and making it stick into every direction. There was a red mark on his left cheek from where his face was resting on Zayn’s arm. Zayn felt the weird urge to poke at said cheek.

“Fuck, I’m so sorry,” Niall sighed, sending Zayn an apologetic look. He looked a bit like Chewie after eating Zayn’s shoe or another pillowcase.  “I didn’t mean to fall asleep, I really didn't. I just got so comfy in here. You’re a great pillow by the way. Hope I haven’t drooled all over you or anything.”

“I thought you were just touched by the scene and cried a little, and that was where that wetness came from,” Zayn shrugged with a grin on his face.

Niall returned the gesture immediately before he turned towards the telly. The video was paused—which was a bit weird since Zayn had no recognition of stopping it—and the clock was showing quarter to one.

“Shit. I had no idea it’s so late already. I should go,” he said. With careful movements he picked up Chewie that was still laying across his lap and gently put him on the pillow laying beside the couch. “You totally should have just thrown me off the couch and told me to go home.”

“I had no idea it was so late either,” Zayn admitted. “Actually—You should stay.”

The words left Zayn’s mouth before he even could think them through properly. Niall’s head slowly turned towards him, however it was still how to read his reaction, especially in the dim room where the TV was the only source of light.

“I mean—” Zayn felt his face heat up, “it’s late. It will be easier for you to just crash here. Catching a bus at this hour is horrible and beside it’s dangerous and this couch is way more comfortable than it looks like.”

“I—,” Niall scratched at his neck, his eyes skipping from Zayn to the floor. “It would be great actually, but I don’t want to bother—”

Zayn stood up, maybe a bit too quickly, shaking his head. “It’s no bother. At all.”

A weird rush of adrenaline was pumping in Zayn's blood at the thought that Niall would be staying over. Which was ridiculous, considering the fact that they would be sleeping in two different rooms. If Niall would even want to stay. The buzzing made Zayn want to leave the room before something unexpected happened.

“Are you sure?” Niall asked. “Cause if—I don't live that far, I could—But it would be great if—”

“Yeah, it's fine. If you don't mind the possibility of Chewie jumping on you in the middle of the night, you can stay,” Zayn said with a smile.

“I'll live,” Niall laughed. “And you? Won't be jumping on me in the middle of the night, will you?”

Taken aback at that comment, Zayn blinked, not sure how to answer this. There were certain images trying to make their way into his mind, but he kept them away. Or tried to.

“Wha—Why would I—” he started to mumble, thankful that the room was almost dark at the moment.

“Some people sleepwalk so just wanted to make sure if I should be prepared,” Niall said, smile still spread on his face.

“Oh!” Zayn mentally slapped himself. “Obviously that's what you meant, what else could it be. And no, I don't do that, you can sleep peacefully.”

“Great.”

After that Zayn went to his room to take out a spare blanket and clean pair of sweats and a t-shirt if Niall wanted to change. Leaving it all in the living room, he wished Niall goodnight and went to the bathroom before disappearing in his bedroom for good.

Even though falling asleep was never a big problem for him, it seemed to be now. Zayn was squirming on his bed, not able to find a comfortable position. His door were slightly opened—as usual, in case Chewie wanted to go in or out of his room. And because of that, he heard all the noises Niall was making while getting ready to sleep. It wasn’t that his friend was being loud or anything, it was just the fact that Zayn had lived alone for quite a long time now and he weaned himself off having someone around in the middle of the night. Not to mention the fact that just the thought of Niall being down the hall from him right now was distracting. Trying not to think about Niall—his not-that-long-known friend Niall—changing in the bathroom, Zayn pressed his face further into the pillow and tried to fell asleep. Eventually, after another half an hour or so he had finally managed to drift off.

 

His peace wasn’t interrupted by anything and—despite Niall’s concern—Zayn didn’t interrupt his friend’s peace as well. Around seven o’clock he was greeted by a quiet whine and a soft paw patting at his face. Zayn stopped bothering with setting the alarm in the evenings, since his dog was way more effective at waking him up. And surprisingly regular.

With a low growl, he got out of bed and got dressed into the first clothes he found. Leaving the room with Chewie trotting happily behind him, Zayn tried to be quiet not to wake Niall. Although he couldn’t resist from taking a look into the living room.

Niall was still asleep, laying on his back on Zayn's couch. His hair was tousled, his lips slightly parted and the blanket Zayn gave him last night, covered only half of his chest. The rest of it was bare, since apparently Niall wasn't the type to sleep with a t-shirt on. Before Zayn could wonder whether there were any other items of clothing that Niall didn't like to sleep in, Chewbacca barked quietly. Making sure Niall didn't wake up, Zayn walked towards the dog that patiently waited by the front door and attached a leash to his collar.

“OK, we're going lad, keep calm. Some fresh air will do good to both of us,” Zayn sighed, opening the door and leaving the flat.

Making it to the nearby park, walking around it for a bit and then going back to Zayn’s block of flats took them a bit over half an hour. Zayn wondered if he had anything edible at home. He wasn’t prepared for Niall staying over for the night, so there was a chance they wouldn’t have anything to eat for breakfast. Wanting to be a good friend, Zayn even considered stopping by to do the groceries on his way home, but—as always when he wanted to do something nice—it turned out that he didn’t have his wallet with him. Maybe Niall wouldn’t mind the lasagna leftovers for breakfast.

Reaching the door to his flat, Zayn tried to quietly unlock it to get inside. It wasn’t that easy, especially the “quietly” part since Chewie was jumping around him and barking at who-knows-what. And he was so tired just a second ago that Zayn had to carry him all the way up the stairs.

“Chewie!” Zayn shouted quietly, as that vicious beast ran past through him as soon as Zayn unlocked the door. With a heavy sigh, Zayn walked inside. He did his best not to wake up Niall, it was all on Chewbacca.

Except, Niall wasn’t asleep. He was currently standing in Zayn’s kitchen, greeting the puppy who ran in circles around Niall’s legs. There was something being fried on the cooker and Niall was dressed in the sweatpants and a t-shirt Zayn gave him last night. His hair were soft and messy against his forehead and he had his glasses on. Zayn felt his heart leap.

“Mornin’, Zayn,” Niall said with a smile when he noticed Zayn standing at the entrance to the kitchen. “Hope you don’t mind I got a little bossy, but I figured I can make breakfast to thank you for letting me stay.”

Zayn blinked, still a little overwhelmed by the sight in front of him. After a few seconds he realised that he should probably say something. After another few seconds, he remembered how to produce words.

“I don't mind, but you didn't have to, Niall, really,” Zayn said eventually. “I didn't do much after all.”

“It was much for me, so now you're gonna enjoy the fancy breakfast I'm making,” Niall waggled his eyebrows as he turned away from Zayn to focus back on the cooker. “You can make coffee while you wait for the meal of your life. Wasn't sure if I know how to use your coffee maker.”

“I'm not sure either,” Zayn said with a chuckle, “I just press random buttons and hope for the best.”

Maybe he was exaggerating, but it was worth it since his comment made Niall laugh. And Niall's laugh was one of the best things Zayn ever heard. Turning on the coffee maker, Zayn turned around to look at his friend, who was humming something under his breath as he flipped whatever he was heating up on that pan. It felt awfully domestic. Zayn could almost imagine himself closing the distance between the two of them as he would hug Niall from behind and press a soft kiss to the back of his neck. Niall would turn his head just enough to quickly peck his cheek and then he'd—quite reluctantly—push Zayn away and ask him to take out the plates.

“Could you take out the plates, Zayn?”

“Huh?” Zayn asked dumbly, shaking his head. Did he said anything out loud?

“Would you get me the plates? I rummaged through your cupboards a bit while I was looking for a pan earlier, but let's pretend I didn't so it won't look weird now when you're here.”

“Oh, yeah. Sure” Zayn mumbled. 

He felt a bit embarrassed about that vision he just had. He didn't think it was appropriate to have such thoughts about a friend. However, it wasn't his fault that Niall was making breakfast in his kitchen, looking all soft and cuddly. It wasn't his fault that Niall made him sit down at the table, while he was putting the food on the plates and pouring the coffee. It wasn't his fault that Niall had the most beautiful smile while he served him breakfast with a ”Bon appetit” in a perfect french accent.

It was all on Niall.

Reluctantly tearing his eyes from Niall, Zayn looked down at the plate. That really was quite a fancy breakfast. Scrambled eggs were probably the most Zayn was expecting, but in front of him were Egg-in-a-Hole toasts with ham and cheese, sprinkled with chives and neatly cut tomatoes on the side. It seemed like it took a bit of effort to make.

“Whoa,” Zayn said, sending a quick look to Niall who just sat on the other side of the table. “This looks great, I'm… flattered.”

“Good,” Niall said simply with a small smile and gestured at Zayn to start eating.

It tasted equally good as it looked. It was probably the nicest morning Zayn had ever had and he usually hated those with everything he'd gotten. Eating a nice breakfast, chatting with Niall, being able to look at Niall—it really did boost Zayn's mood.

Unfortunately, however good it might be, it had to end eventually. After they had eaten, Niall said he'd better start getting ready, since he should come by his flat before work. When he disappeared in the bathroom, Zayn cleaned up the table, smiling at himself when he heard Niall's muffled humming coming from the other room.

“I’m afraid you have to lend me this t-shirt,” Niall said, coming out of the bathroom.

He had his skinnies back on and his hair looked a bit more sorted out. Like the evening before, his glasses were hooked on the collar of his—or actually Zayn's—t-shirt.

“Do I?” Zayn asked, raising his eyebrow as he leaned against the doorframe.

“Yup,” Niall said with a nod. “Because apparently I stained mine with lasagna and I didn’t even notice. So I’m stealing—I mean borrowing yours.”

Zayn’s cheeks hurt a bit from all the smiling, but he wasn’t going to complain. For a few moments they were just standing there, staring at each other. Niall took a step forward, fumbling with the stained t-shirt he was holding in his hand. Then he took another one, shifting quite close to where Zayn was still leaning against the doorframe—and Zayn was quite glad he was supported by it, since he was afraid his knees would given up.

“So… I should go,” Niall said.

Zayn nodded absentmindedly when despite his words Niall made no effort to move.

“Thanks for letting me stay. And for inviting me in the first place,” Niall smiled. “And for giving me this shirt.”

“It's 'borrowing’ and you'll have to come again and give it back. I quite like that one,” Zayn answered, the side of his lips lifting up.

“OK,” was the only thing Niall said and Zayn wasn't sure if he shifted even closer or not. It was hard to notice anything, since Zayn was too caught up in staring at Niall's face, at how his lips moved. Zayn's fingers twitched. If he moved his hand just slightly, he'd be able to touch Niall. If he leaned a bit closer, he'd be able to maybe kiss him, too.

And something in Niall's face made Zayn believe that maybe he wouldn't be against it. 

Niall licked his lips, making Zayn's breath caught up in his throat. He was about to close the distance between them— When there was a loud crush somewhere behind his back. Zayn jumped up, startled by the noise and his spun around, trying to locate the source of noise.

Unsurprisingly, it was caused by Chewie, who somehow managed to push a glass off the table.

“Chewbacca! Why are you like this?” Zayn whined, probably more mad at his dog at breaking that weird moment he had with Niall than at breaking the glass.

The puppy barked happily and run towards the living room, completely ignoring the mess he'd made and Zayn's irritation.

“So he  _ really  _ is a vicious beast,” Niall said after cleaning his throat and he let out a small chuckle. “OK, unfortunately I have to leave you with this mess or I'll be late for work.”

“That's a shitty excuse, you're just worried I'll make you clean that up,” Zayn joked. 

“This is exactly why I'm leaving,” Niall grinned. “Thanks again for everything and see you soon, yeah?”

Not even waiting for an answer, Niall shifted closer with an one, smooth move pressed a small kiss to Zayn's cheek. Before Zayn could even react, his friend was already out of the door.

For a few moments, Zayn just stood there, feeling confused and kind of dizzy, only staring at the front door as if it would explain to him what happened. Eventually, he shook his head, trying to go back into reality.

Chewbacca trotted back to the kitchen as if to check if he was going to be shout at.

“Chewie, I’m so fucked,” Zayn sighed and dropped to the floor, so the puppy could jump onto his lap. “For the record—I’m mad at you for destroying the glass and the moment with Niall I had, don’t think I’m not. But I feel like I need a cuddle.”

His right cheek felt like it was on fire from Niall’s kiss.

After cleaning all the broken glass from the kitchen, Zayn went to take a shower and get ready to work. Drying his wet hair with a towel, he tried to find his phone that he had abandoned somewhere before the breakfast. Rummaging through the living room, he did find a phone on the couch. Although, it wasn’t his. Zayn furrowed his brows as he took it and pressed the power button. There was a photo of some guitar set as a background and Zayn smiled to himself. Niall must had forgotten his phone. Which was unfortunate, since now Zayn had no way of contacting him to let him know the phone was here. He guessed he’d have to come by the service centre on his way to work. Placing it on the kitchen table so he wouldn’t forget it, Zayn went back to his room to get dressed.

When he was almost ready and about to leave, there was a knock on the door. Confused at first by the unexpected guest, Zayn quickly figured that it must had been Niall, who realised he didn’t have his phone on him. He hushed Chewie who started to bark at the door and went to open it, without even checking who was outside.

“Realised you’re missing some—” Zayn started but stopped abruptly.

The guy on his doorstep wasn’t Niall. But before Zayn could do anything, the guy said “I’m really sorry about this.”

And then everything went black.


	2. Chapter Two

Zayn’s head was pounding. He felt like he had passed out. Which was weird, because he had never passed out in his life, so he wasn’t sure how those things worked. His body was heavy, his head dizzy and he wasn’t sure where he was or what happened. He tried to open his eyes, but he wasn’t really sure how to do that. With a low grunt, Zayn tried to move and realised that he was probably lying down. On something quite soft, which was a bit surprising. Was he sleeping? As far as he was concerned, sleeping felt nicer.

Focusing on his breath, he tried to regain control over his own body. There were some weird noises in the background, that he couldn’t make any sense of. After what felt like eternity, he realised those noises were actually strands of a conversation.

“—tucked him in the fucking bed? He's not our long awaited guest, you dickhead!” there was yelling that made Zayn's head pound even more.

“But Lou—” someone mumbled too quietly for Zayn to understand it.

“We can tie him to the bed,” the third voice suggested.

“He's not our sex slave either, Harry!” the first person yelled again. Zayn felt like he didn't like them.

Zayn tried to shift slightly on the bed, but he realised that his hands were tied behind his back. That—in addition to everything else that was happening around him—made him panic and he moved more rapidly that intended.

“Oh look! He's waking up!” one of the voices pointed out. It was the one that suggested tying him to the bed. Zayn wasn't sure how to feel about that. He cursed under his breath.

Not seeing another option, Zayn blinked his eyes open. It wasn't the easiest thing to do, his eyelids felt heavy as if they were made of steel and he was all dizzy and numb from pain. After a long moment, he finally managed to open his eyes enough to see his surroundings. 

He was lying on a low, wide bed that actually seemed just like a mattress dumped on the concrete floor. The room wasn’t a big one, but the door on the left gave Zayn the idea that there was more to it. The brick-built walls, the high, divided windows and the general feeling of this place made Zayn think he was being kept in some kind of a warehouse. It wasn’t really comforting. Finally, Zayn’s eyes stopped at three figures standing in front of him that were watching him silently.

The one in the middle was quite—well, small. And not really intimidating. He looked rather soft with his tousled hair and hoodie that was at least three sizes too big for him.  On his left there was the bulky man with a buzzcut that showed up at Zayn’s doorstep. At the sight of him Zayn felt nauseous. Zayn scrambled into seating position, trying to press himself against the wall behind him but it wasn’t easy with his hands tied. He smashed his head on the hard surface, letting out a muffled groan as he squeezed his eyes shut. It most certainly didn’t help for the dizziness he still felt.

Blinking away the dark spots that appeared in his vision, Zayn slowly raised his head up, facing his… kidnappers?

Holy fuck he was kidnapped.

The three men in front of him were still watching him silently. Taking a look at the third man, who stood behind the two but his head was still poking above, Zayn furrowed his brows in confusion. He knew him. It was the curly-haired Styles guy who brought a laptop to Niall’s IT centre.

“Who are you? What is all this?” Zayn said, his voice screeching. “Why the fuck am I tied up?”

On the second thought, maybe he should be more polite, since he was held hostage after all. He was too woozy to worry about it, though.

The small guy in front raised his eyebrows in a mocking manner, his eyes not leaving Zayn for a split second. All of sudden, the soft impression he had given Zayn vanished into thin air.

“Sorry about that, but I—” the bulky one said. His tone was gentle just like the look on his face and he really seemed like he meant it.

“Liam, what the fuck! Don’t fucking apologise to him! What is wrong with you?!” the little one yelled, smacking the Gentle Giant on the head.

Zayn was more and more confused with every passing second.

“But Lou—”

“Shut the fuck up. He’s a fucking thief,” the Fierce Fairy yelled again, waving a hand in Zayn’s direction.

“I’m not a t—” Zayn started, not really knowing how to react. Those guys didn’t seem… well, sane.

“Nobody fucking asked for your opinion,” the small one—Lou?—said, narrowing his eyes at Zayn.

After a second of staring at Zayn with hatred, he turned his head to look back at the Gentle Giant. The latter’s—Liam’s, if Zayn heard correctly—shoulders were hunched, making him look smaller and less intimidating, almost smaller than the Fierce one, which was really impressing. While that two seemed to have a glaring conversation with each other, the Styles guy who were just observing everything from the back, brushed past them and came closer to where Zayn was seated.

Involuntarily, Zayn pressed himself further against the wall. During their previous encounter, Styles seemed like a very polite and nice guy. But after seeing his mad associates, Zayn wasn’t sure about anything.

“Don’t be scared, we’re sorry it all turned out like this,” his voice was as deep and slow as Zayn had remembered. However, this time it wasn’t soothing. It creeped Zayn out and he was mentally preparing himself to hear that he was going to die in the next five minutes.

“Stop fucking saying sorry, you fucking morons!” the small one said, accenting every word like if he was talking to children. “He should be the one to apologise for stealing my life’s work!”

The look on his face suggested that he was about to snap. Zayn pressed himself as far into the corner as he could. Who would had thought that the Fierce Fairy was the one he should be fearing the most.

“Stop screaming, Lou, you’re scaring him!” Styles said, sending the Fairy an accusing look. He rested his hands on his hips and looked like a disappointed mother. 

Zayn would even laughed at that if he wasn’t scared shitless that they’d start killing each other and then him any second now.

“I’m—Scaring—” Lou said, his eyes wide as he run a hand through his hair. He let out a quiet laugh that sounded almost maniacal.

Zayn squeezed his eyes shut. He was ready to die. 

Well, he wasn’t, but he was more than sure that the small one won’t take it anymore.

“OK, that’s fucking it.” Fierce Fairy said, with a heavy sigh.

That was it.

“I’m fucking outta here. You two are the fucking worse, I can’t deal with you right now,” he threw his arms in the air and left the room, banging the door behind him.

The remaining two exchanged a look, before the Gentle Giant followed Lou. Zayn was quite sure that when he was closing the door behind him, he sent Zayn a smile. But maybe he was just hallucinating. That whole thing felt like a bloody hallucination to him.

“Sorry about that,” Styles said, looking back at Zayn with a smile. “Louis’ just a bit stressed.”

Zayn had  _ “And what the fuck am I supposed to say?!”  _ on the tip of his tongue, but he stopped himself last second. It was better not to talk at all.

“We brought you here—” Curly continued.

“Kidnapped me,” Zayn mumbled under his breath, not able to stop himself.

Styles pouted at that, scratching at the back of his neck, “Well, I know how this looks like. But there wasn’t any other way, we need to ask you a few questions. If you tell us what we want to know, we’ll let you go, promise!”

Zayn’s head was spinning even more than when he was regaining consciousness some time ago. Or maybe he still didn’t come back to himself and that was the explanation for all the weird shit that was happening. He lifted his head to take a good look at the guy standing next to him. He had a gentle smile on his face, his locks swaying wildly around his head and he had a ridiculous pink shirt with a huge bowtie on his neck. He didn’t look like someone who could kill a man. Or who could kill an insect, even.

“I have no idea what do you want from me, I don’t know anything” Zayn said.

“Pretty sure you do. Remember that laptop I brought to you the other day?” Curly asked, waiting for Zayn’s confirmation. “There was something… important on it. If you’ve found it, you’ll probably know what I’m talking about. We just need it back.”

Furrowing his brows, Zayn wanted to say that he didn’t understand what Styles was talking about, but then he froze.

Niall had the guy’s laptop.

The broken laptop was fixed by Niall. When he got home that day, he said Zayn that there was an encrypted file that looked like a virus and he had been trying to crack it. And the day after that he appeared at work looking like a zombie and had to recover for over three more days. That file—Zayn had no idea what that file could be, but apparently it was important enough to kidnap a man for it. He could feel his heart rate jumping up. They wanted Niall all along, but due to a misunderstanding they took him. Niall was in danger.

Hoping that Styles didn’t notice the panic growing in him, Zayn cleared his throat.

“But I don’t know what you mean!” he said, trying to sound as convincing as possible. “I didn’t find anything unusual, I just—” Zayn stopped for a moment, desperately trying to remind himself how Niall called the thing he did to his computer the first time they’d met. “I just restored the BIOS settings and it went smoothly from that. Didn’t do anything else.”

For a moment or two, Styles only looked at him without a word. Zayn could feel his heart in his throat. He must had seen through him. He must had known what was wrong with the laptop and that Zayn was lying. That was a test and Zayn failed it.

“Are you sure?” Styles finally asked, his voice sounding as gentle as earlier when he turned his head to the side. “Because I—”

“Harry! Come here!” there was a yell from another room that didn’t let Curly finish his sentence.

Styles turned towards the door, his hair swirling around him as he moved. Taking two steps towards the door, he stopped to look at Zayn again and sent him an apologetic smile.

“Sorry, I have to go. I would untie you but Lou would probably kill me. I’ll be back in a while.”

And with that he left the room, closing the door behind him.

Closing his eyes, Zayn banged his head against the wall a few times. What was going on and why was this happening to him?

As it turned out, banging his head against the wall wasn’t the wisest idea. Breathing slowly through his nose, Zayn tried to calm down. Making use of the fact that he was alone and had—more or less—a clear mind, he looked around the room. It looked like it was separated from a bigger thing that must've been a warehouse. The walls on his left seemed to be makeshift, not as solid as the rest. Zayn also noticed another door, except the ones his kidnappers used to leave the room. He was sitting too far from the window to see anything more than a part of the cloudy sky. There wasn't much stuff in the room. The mattress Zayn was sitting on, a closet and some carton boxes here and there. Nothing that'd given him any idea where he was. 

Moving his feet and wrists around, Zayn tried to get rid of the rope he was tied with. Unfortunately for him, the knots were very tight and impossible to untangle. Feeling the anxiety rising in him, Zayn swallowed hard, thinking about anything that could help him come out of the situation.

Minutes were passing and Zayn had nothing. He didn't even have his phone on him, not sure whether it was because he left it at home or because the bad guys took it. Either way it was bad. However, he hoped it was the former, since if they had Zayn's phone, there was a chance they'd be able to find out what really happened and get a hold on Niall that way. And Zayn didn't want it to happen. He preferred that they both had been left alone, but if he had a choice, he'd rather suffer in order to keep Niall out of this. It was crazy how he became willing to do that, after such a short period of knowing Niall.

He wondered if Niall would do the same for him.

It felt like hours had passed since the Styles guy left, leaving Zayn alone. But then again, Zayn didn’t had anything to check the time, he had no idea when Styles was here or even when he had been taken from his flat. The more he thought about it, the tighter the knot in his stomach was.

Zayn realised that he wasn’t even sure if the Terrible Trio was still around. After they left, they blasted some music, probably to make it impossible for Zayn to eardrop—or maybe because they just felt like it. At first however, some voices were still audible, but not comprehensible since they were mixing up with the louder music. Now they were gone. Zayn had no idea what that meant and whether it was a good or a bad thing. It wasn’t like he could go and check what was going on.

When Zayn was joking—or partially joking—about Niall discovering someone deepest, darkest secrets or about the fact that Niall could had a secret identity, he hadn’t thought about the possible outcome of such situation. And he most certainly hadn’t thought about his own involvement in the case. Apparently, he should had.

Anxious, light-headed and tired all of sudden, Zayn slid down the wall, lying back on the mattress. His heart was hammering in his chest. He tried to calm down but it was hard with all those thoughts flying through his mind. He got kidnapped, for fuck’s sake. He had no idea where he was and how long had he been there. Nobody had probably noticed him gone and it would probably take a while for anyone to do so. His puppy was left all alone and Zayn had no idea what he’d do. In his wildest nightmares, Zayn would never expect himself to get into such situation. And since reality was quite far from what was shown in films, he didn’t see a way out of it.

Zayn had no idea how long he was lying there, fighting off all the depressing thoughts. On one hand, he wished for the Terrible Trio to come back, so he’d have a distraction.

As soon as he thought that, there was a muffled thud that made Zayn jump and look around. A quiet curse followed it soon enough and Zayn realised that it came from behind the door he noticed later, not the ones the bad guys used. Pulling himself up to a seated position, Zayn pressed his back into the wall and stared at the door. It was hard to guess what should he expect.

Another—painfully long—moment had passed before the door handle twisted slowly. Zayn held his breath.

From all the possibilities, he really wasn’t ready for this one. Blinking a few times to make sure it wasn’t a hallucination of any kind, Zayn let out a relieved sigh.

“Niall?”

Hearing his name, Niall’s eyes quickly skipped to Zayn. As soon as he saw him, he let out a breathless “fuck” and fully entered the room, getting closer to where Zayn was seated. His movements were rapid and jittery as he dropped onto his knees by the mattress and placed a shaky hand on Zayn’s arm and slid it up to cup the side of his neck.

“Oh my god, Zayn, I was so fucking worried, I came back cause I left my phone and the door were open and you weren’t there and Chewie was going crazy and I didn’t know what happened and didn’t know where to look for you and—” Niall was spewing out words so fast Zayn could barely understand him.

Making a shushing noise, Zayn tried to make Niall relax, even though he was in a similar state just a moment ago, “Niall, it’s OK. Calm down, I’m fine, yeah? You have to calm down so we can get out of here.”

Niall only nodded and took a deep breath, not tearing his eyes away from Zayn for even a second, as if he was worried Zayn was going to disappear. When he managed to stop the shaking of his hands, he focused on freeing Zayn from the ropes. It wasn’t easy, since they didn’t have anything to cut it with, but somehow Niall managed to untangle the knots. 

Only after being able to properly move again, Zayn realised how stiff his muscles got. He must had been in here for longer than he expected. His legs were a bit shaky when he had finally stood up, but Niall was already there to steady him. Before Zayn could react, he was embraced in a warm hug. A bit confused and a lot surprised, he reciprocate the gesture, wrapping his arms around Niall’s middle.

“I’m sorry, Zayn,” Niall mumbled, his face hid in the crook of Zayn’s neck. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t—”

“What are you talking about? You don’t need to apologise. But can we get outta here now. I don’t know if those guys are around,” Zayn whispered. “How did you even get here?”

“The air duct,” Niall grabbed Zayn’s wrist and walked towards the door he came through a few minutes ago. “There’s a wide enough entry in here. We’re a bit high up now, but there is some container that’ll help us get down.”

The room they’d entered seemed to be a bathroom area. There was an old bath, a toilet and metal wash basin with a mirror hanging above it. Over the bath Zayn could see the air duct Niall was talking about—a dark hole in a wall, it’s cover lying on the floor where Niall probably left it.

“I’m—,” Niall started, taking a deep breath, “I’ll go first and guide you, yeah? It’s not far, luckily.”

Zayn only nodded and soon enough they both were groveling in the tight, dark space, trying to make as little noise as possible. However, their heavy breathing echoed through the metal passage, loud as thunder in their ears. It took him a good few minutes to go through the air duct but when they finally had made it, they spent a minute sitting on the metal container Niall mentioned before to catch their breaths.

Looking around, Zayn scanned the area, hoping to recognise it. He didn’t. They were surrounded by some old warehouses, just like the one they’d just escaped. The windows in them were broken, brick walls covered in some graffiti but mostly just sloppy letters coming together into random curses and insults. The area was drowning in garbage and colourful broken glass from bottles and windows—it seemed like a place that anyone with minimum common sense would rather avoid. Zayn wasn’t sure if they were still in Manchester.

“Where are we even?” Zayn asked, turning his face to look at Niall.

As soon as he did it, Zayn cursed under his breath, getting onto his knees and shifted closer to Niall. The latter’s eyes were closed, his head resting on the wall behind him, but what really scared Zayn was the fact that his face was white as paper and the breaths he were taking were shallow and panting. Kicking himself for not realising it earlier, Zayn touched Niall’s arm lightly, not wanting to startle him.

“Niall? What is happening, what’s wrong?”

“It’s—I’m fine,” Niall answered, his voice coming out croaky. “I’m—Fuck. I kinda have… claustrophobia? I’ll—I’ll be fine. In a second.”

Not knowing whether he could hug him or better move away to give him space, Zayn settled for rubbing Niall’s arm in what he hoped was a calming gesture.

“It’s OK, we’re out now and we’re fine. It’s fine, Niall, you just have to calm down for me now, yeah? Just a couple of nice and slow breaths and we can get the hell outta here, OK?” Zayn said, getting a small nod from Niall. 

Squeezing at the hand Zayn had on his arm, Niall tried to follow Zayn’s lead, slowly syncing his breathing with Zayn. It took a moment for him to calm down enough so his tensed muscles relaxed and he slowly opened his eyes. He stared at the clouded sky for a moment before sending a quick glance at Zayn.

“Thank you,” he said quietly, moving his eyes back up. “And I’m sorry. I just thought that fucking duct will never end,” he laughed weakly.

“What the fuck, Niall, don’t be sorry. You fucking crawled in there just to save me, I should be the one doing the thanking. You have nothing to apologise for.”

Turning his head slightly, Niall looked at Zayn, not saying a word. Zayn send him a small smile, partially to emphasise his words and partially because he was happy the colours were going back on Niall’s face, his cheeks regaining their rosy shade.

“I—” Niall started, blinking at him and clearing his throat before he continued. “We’d better get out of here before they go back.”

With that Niall squeezed at Zayn’s hand—who only now realised that he was still rubbing at Niall’s forearm— and started to get up. Shaking his head to clear his mind, Zayn followed his lead. He almost forgot they were supposed to run away from a bunch of madmen that had kidnapped him. Which seemed like a kind of thing that is rather hard to forget.

“We’re somewhere on the outskirts of Manchester, I think,” Niall said as they were weaving between the buildings.

“You think?” Zayn asked, a bit anxious.

“I didn’t pay much attention to the road, but we’re not that far. I have a car here and we should—,” Niall stopped.

Stopped both speaking and walking, which made Zayn bump into him since he didn’t expect Niall to do so. Zayn’s first thought was that he’d been alerted by something, like the Terrible Trio coming after them or something. But Niall turned around to look at Zayn, his face unsure.

“Zayn, I need you to listen to me for a moment, OK?” Niall asked, looking serious and that made Zayn’s stomach drop, but he nodded. “I need to—We need to get out of town for a bit, OK? I know I probably sound crazy but I—I’m not sure what else to do,” Niall said, his fingers messing with his hair. “I need some time to figure it out but I can’t—I can’t let anything like that happen to you again. So please come with me? So I can make sure you’re safe. I promise I’ll explain everything to you when we find some place to stay. Fuck, I know how this sounds, but this whole thing is just so—I—,” with a heavy sight, Niall shook his head and looked Zayn in the eyes. “I promise I won’t let anything bad happen to you but I need you to trust me now, OK?”

Listening to Niall’s words make his heart race and his breath quicken, and Zayn didn’t know what to do with all this. It made him realise once again that Niall had gotten into some trouble and now he had became a part of this as well. It wasn’t really reassuring.

“Yes. Yeah, I trust you, Niall,” Zayn said eventually, giving a small nod. He wasn’t sure whether it was to emphasise his words or to convince himself it was a good decision. “Let’s go.”

Niall released his breath with a shaky exhale, visibly relieved to hear this. His fingers wrapped around Zayn's and squeezed lightly as Niall smiled at him. Very quickly though—too quickly for Zayn's liking—his serious face were back and he turned around and started walking, not letting go of Zayn's hand.

After a minute or two, they were sitting in Niall's old ford he had left there a couple hours ago. They didn’t talk much after Niall started the engine and drove off to wherever he wanted to go. Radio was playing quietly but none of them paid much attention to it. Zayn rested his head against the window, feeling like the adrenaline was the only thing keeping him on his legs. He looked over at Niall who was slouched over the wheel, completely focused on the road ahead, going over speed limit from what Zayn could tell. Only now Zayn realised that he was still wearing the t-shirt Zayn lent him last night. It was crazy that just a few hours ago they were eating breakfast in Zayn’s kitchen, laughing and joking and now they were on a run, getting away from some mad men chasing whatever was on that laptop. Zayn thought things like that didn’t happen in real life.

Probably feeling Zayn’s gaze on him, Niall turned his head to face him for a split second before looking back in front of the car. He did it a few more times, torn between paying attention to the road and observing Zayn and this drew out a weak chuckle from Zayn.

“You’re OK? How’re you feeling?” Niall asked, taking the foot out of the gas, looking at Zayn for a little bit longer.

“I’m fine, just a bit… tired and confused, I guess. But other than that I’m ok,” Zayn shrugged, sending Niall a smile in hope to calm him down. “Are you OK? You’re so tense and fidgety, I can drive if you want me—”

“No, it’s fine, I’m fine. Don’t worry about me,” Niall cut him off, rubbing at his temple, but that didn’t sound very convincing. “We just need to get out of here.”

***

Zayn had no idea when had he managed to fall asleep, considering he was buzzing from all the emotions earlier. It must had been the steady hum of the engine and the assurance that he was safe, that lulled him to sleep. What woke him up was a gentle hand squeezing at his arm and somebody whispering his name. Reluctantly, Zayn blinked his eyes open. It took him a second to realise where he was, but then his eyes landed on Niall and everything started to slowly come back to him.

“Sorry to wake you up,” Niall sent him a tired smile. “I booked us a room in a hostel over there. You’ll be more comfy inside.”

“I didn't mean to fall asleep, sorry,” Zayn mumbled, rubbing at his eyes to wake himself up. “For how long I was gone?”

“Less than an hour, I think. I needed to take a break a while ago but I think we've gotten far enough.”

Zayn only nodded, swallowing hard at the reminder that they were on the run. It was still hard to believe. Following Niall’s lead, he got out of the car and soon enough they had entered a small, inconspicuous building with an worn out sign saying “Luxury Backpackers” above the entrance. The lobby was just as small and simple, Zayn could barely see the head of some young man sitting on the other side of the counter, hid behind the computer screen. Niall led him upstairs and to a room at the end of a short corridor. Unsurprisingly, it was quite plain with it’s white walls, a tiny table with one chair, wooden chest of drawers and a queen bed in the corner. At least they had an—equally tiny—bathroom in there.

“Fuck,” Niall cursed as he followed Zayn into the room. “I forgot to—I didn’t even think about it. I should’ve told that guy we want separate beds. I can go and fix it just—”

He already turned around to go back to the reception, but Zayn placed his hand on Niall’s chest before he could move any further.

“It’s OK. I guess one bed is quite low on our list of worries. I mean I hog the covers while I sleep, but I’ll try to behave,” Zayn shrugged, smiling when Niall let out a quiet chuckle. “Besides, you look like you’re about to faint. Are you OK?”

With a heavy sigh, Niall took a few steps back and plonked down on the bed and massaged at his temples. “My head is fucking pounding.”

“Why, what is happening? Do you need me to get you some meds or anything?” Zayn asked, moving closer to Niall.

“No, it won’t help much, it’s—,” Niall sighed again, leaning back so he was lying on his back and looked up at Zayn. “Those guys… Did they tell you anything, like why did they take you?”

Sitting beside him on the bed, Zayn shook his head. “Not really. They just… One of them kept saying I was a thief and then that Styles guy told me there was something… I don’t know, important? On the laptop we—you were fixing. And that they needed it back. I wasn’t sure what he meant and I didn’t tell him anything.”

Niall cursed under his breath, closing his eyes, before he spoke again. “Remember when… Remember when I told you I thought there was a virus on that laptop and I wanted to look into it?” he looked at Zayn and continued when the latter nodded. “I’ve managed to open it. At first I thought it was just some damaged file, cause nothing happened, but then—Like the screen flashed white and I… heard that high, static noise and I couldn’t stop it in any way. I think I’ve passed out eventually,” he let out a humourless laugh. “When I woke up the next morning I still heard that noise, but I thought it was just like a… phantom feeling, like just a memory of what I’ve heard before, you know? And I had the worst headache in my life.”

After saying that, he trailed off, looking up at the ceiling for a few moments, before screwing his eyes shut again and rubbing his forehead in a somewhat frustrated gesture.

“What was it? What did it do?” Zayn asked quietly, shifting on the bed slightly.

“I’m still not sure. It’s like—Fuck, it’s gonna sound crazy, I don’t even know what to say. It’s like I’ve got that… ability. To receive some, I don’t know, signals? I sound like a madman, but when I got home after that I’ve realised that the noises were worse when I tried to use my phone or laptop or any device like that. Like I could hear them. It’s like I was in a crowded bar, you know? In a place when you’re surrounded by noise and bits of conversations and other sounds. When you’re not paying attention, it’s just a background noise—still annoying and overwhelming when you hear it for so long. But if you focus, you can recognise some individual bits of it, even the distant ones.”

“So like, everywhere I go I  _ hear  _ electronic devices, they’re like ringing and mixing and blending in my head. And sometimes some of them come up to the surface so I can sense an incoming phone call or there’s music from some laptop out there or I don’t know… Like I have all those tabs opened in my brain. It’s really hard to describe. Normally I can’t control it, so I just try to ignore it, push it to the back of my head. I’ve tried to block it, but it’s like… draining me of energy, I can't do that for long. Also sometimes when I try really hard, I’m able to track down a signal and focus just on that one. It’s exhausting, but—that’s how I was able to find you,” Niall sent Zayn a quick glance before looking up at the ceiling. “I know how it sounds like, it’s fucking crazy and I won’t be surprised if you won’t believe me, but—Please trust me, at least on the part of keeping you safe. I have no idea who those guys are or what is the thing that I’ve gotten in my fucking brain, but I’ll figure out what to do. You’ve got fucking kidnapped because of  _ me  _ and I’m so, so sorry, I’d never—I’m so sorry you’ve got involved in this.”

Niall’s words became quicker and more trembling as he continued. His hand was covering his eyes, so he couldn’t see that Zayn was shaking his head and didn’t seem to hear Zayn’s attempts to interrupt him. Finally, when Zayn reached out and run his fingers through his hair, Niall let out a shaky breath, calming down enough for Zayn to say something.

“It’s not your fault, Niall. I don’t blame you for anything and you shouldn’t blame yourself, either. And… it does sound insane, but—I believe you. Like you’ve been acting odd lately and I was trying to figure out why,” still stroking Niall’s hair, Zayn smiled to himself and joked, hoping to cheer Niall up. Well—only partially joked. “I was actually betting on you being a superhero, so truthfully I’m a bit disappointed, but… having some kind of a super-computer in your brain is still pretty cool.”

His attempt was a successful one, because Niall snorted and his lips curled into a small smile. He put down his arm, his eyes slightly reddened when they looked up at Zayn.

“Sorry to disappoint,” Niall laughed, this time sounding sincere, “next time I have the opportunity, I'd jump into radioactive shite to impress you.”

“You don't have to impress me,” Zayn said.

“I can still try,” Niall shrugged, closing his eyes again.

Zayn still stroked his head, since it seemed to calm Niall down. After a few more minutes of lying there in silence, Zayn realised that his friend fell asleep. He deserved it. Weirdly enough, Zayn wasn’t able to fall asleep, so he just laid there, thinking about all that had happened. He wondered if his sister noticed he didn’t go to work today. He wondered if Chewie was OK.

 

Almost two hours had passed—judging by the watch on Niall’s wrist since it was the only timer in the room—before Niall finally woke up.  He looked significantly better—he wasn’t as pale and fidgety, and when he turned his head to the side, the smile he sent Zayn had finally reached his eyes.

“Hi, Zayn” he said.

Lying on his side across the bed, next to Niall, Zayn suddenly felt his cheeks heat up. Staying by his friends side for two hours, playing with his hair while he was asleep, didn’t seem really platonic. His hand stilled, but he didn’t take it away. “Hey. How’s your head?”

“It’s fine. Doesn't hurt anymore, I'm just—,” Niall trailed off, his eyes skipping across Zayn's face. “A bit dizzy.”

“Do you need anything?” Zayn asked.

Niall shook his head, “No, thank you. And also thank you for… trusting me. You know, some people would just… smack me if I randomly asked them to flee from the city with me. But you just went with it.”

“I can smack you now if you want?” Zayn raised his eyebrow, making Niall laugh. “I must’ve got a soft spot for you.”

“Good,” Niall grinned and closed the distance between them, placing a quick kiss on Zayn’s lips. Before Zayn could even react, Niall was already halfway to the bathroom.

“I think we have to go and find a store. We don’t have any food or personal stuff, clothes, anything,” Niall yelled from the bathroom.

Blinking in confusion, Zayn tried to understand what happened just a second ago. It was so quick that he wasn't even sure if that really happened. Maybe it was just his imagination playing tricks on him? He'd been through a lot, he had the right to some fantom fantasies now and then.

Shaking his head to stop dwelling on it, Zayn got info seated position and answered after clearing his throat, “Yeah, you’re right. But I don’t—I don’t think I have any money on me. Not even a credit card or my phone.”

“Don’t worry about it. Like—” Niall came back to the room, scratching sheepishly at his neck and then he pointed at his head, “this has also a few… more practical uses. Maybe questionably moral. I'd feel worse about it, if we weren't in such situation.”

“You mean like,” Zayn made a vague gesture, “You can hack a… credit card terminal or something like that?”

“Or a cashpoint, yeah. Or at least I think so, not that I've done it before. But the principle is the same, isn't it?”

“I have no idea what's the principle of your super-brain, don't ask me,” Zayn raised his hands in surrender. “In the morning I was walking my puppy and getting ready to work and then I've been kidnapped and now I'm going to rob a bank. It's all downhill from here.”

Niall snorted, locking the room behind them and soon enough they were outside. The sun was hanging low on the sky, getting ready to hide behind the horizon.

“It’s good you’re joking about it so carelessly, I was afraid, you’d get I don’t know… concerned?” Niall said with a laugh. “And we’re not going to rob a bank, stop it.”

Biting at his lip, Zayn kicked at some rock, lying on the ground in front of him, “Actually…” he started, sending a quick glance at Niall, “You think I could contact my sister somehow? I know we probably shouldn’t but… I know she’ll be worried when she notices I’m gone and I’m—I’m so worried about Chewie, he’s never been alone for long and—What if the door was open and he run away? Or what if—what if that guy—What if something happened to Chewie? I need someone to check on him, please. I won’t say anything about where we are or anything—”

“Of course, Zayn, I understand. I have my phone somewhere, but—I’m not sure if it’s safe to use it. They probably have yours and if so, they probably can get a hold of me. So it’s—,” Niall sighed, rubbing at his forehead. “We can pick up a phone—like a burner—from the store if we find something, OK? So you could text your sister or someone.”

“Thank you so much. It—It really means everything,” Zayn sent him a relieved smile. Instead of answering, Niall only returned the gesture and bumped their shoulders together.

It took them another fifteen minutes of walking around, before they got closer to the city centre and found a cash dispenser. Zayn still wasn’t sure where they were but he wasn’t bothered enough to ask. Cash withdrawal went surprisingly smoothly, especially considering the fact they weren’t even using a credit card.

“I’m gonna pay it back by donating to some charity, promise,” Niall mumbled to himself, hiding the money in his pocket, before they started walking again, finally finding a small supermarket.

Shopping for necessities, queuing and getting back into the hostel took them over an hour, so it was getting dark when they had reached their room. As soon as they did that, Niall dropped the bags on the floor and fell face down on the bed, mumbling something about regretting not to take the car. Zayn’s mention of finding the communal kitchen and making something to eat turned out to be powerful enough to make him get up. 

***

**From: Me**   
hey big sis, it’s zayn. my friend had an emergency and i’m gonna be away for a couple of days, sorry i’m only telling u now. also my phone broke, i’ll let u know as soon as i get it fixed. you’d handle the bookstore without me, yeah? also could u please come by to mine and take care of chewie? i’ll make it up to u, love u bye xxx   
_ Thursday, 9:07PM _

“You OK?”

Zayn tore his eyes away from the phone he was toying with and looked up at Niall, who just walked out of the bathroom and sent him a smile.

“I’m fine, just texted Doniya. Thank you for that again,” Zayn said, raising the phone to show Niall what he meant. “I’ve already turned it off.”

Nodding, Niall finished drying his hair with a towel and then hanged it neatly on the back of the chair. He did the same with the one Zayn threw there sloppily after his own shower.

“That's probably not necessary,” Niall said, sitting at the edge of the bed and taking the phone from Zayn. “Turning it off, I mean. It’s a new mobile so the chances they would be able to link it to us are very low. It’s probably impossible to check every device. But… I don't know, I’m just trying to be as careful as possible. I don't know what to expect from them or what to do.”

“That's understandable,” Zayn said. “Unless you had some encounters with evil hacker masterminds before that you've forgotten to mention?”

“Of course. It's basically a regular Friday for me,” Niall grinned.

“You keep surprising me, Horan.”

Niall waggled his eyebrows at that, his smile not fading even a little bit. Getting up from the bed and starting to go through one of the shopping bags, he said, “I hope you like that because I have another surprise.”

Before Zayn could comment on that, Niall turned around with a bottle of wine in his hands and a cheerful “Ta-Da!”. Zayn was quite impressed, because he didn't even noticed Niall picking it up at the store. Taking the mugs they had borrowed from the communal kitchen, Niall came back to sit on the bed.

“I've figured we deserve some alcohol to deal with today's traumas,” Niall said. “Also the bottle is twist-off, because I'm thoughtful like that.”

“A real hero,” Zayn laughed, taking a mug from Niall. 

Sitting more comfortably on the bed, Niall rested his back against the bedhead, his eyes focused on the mug in his hands. He trailed the rim with his finger, taking a deep breath.

“Actually…” he started, making Zayn looked up at his face. “The more I think about it, the more I feel like I’ve overreacted.”

Zayn furrowed his brows, “Overreacted? Why?”

“I mean… We have no idea who those guys are, what are they capable of or what should we expect. Maybe running away wasn’t necessary? They still might not know who I am and there is probably plenty of places in Manchester we could hide in. It’s probably impossible for them to track this,” he pointed at his head, “since they didn’t know I’ve got it.”

“Maybe, you’re right but… It’s not that we could ask them. It was better to do it this way than to wait and see what they’d do, yeah?”

“Yeah and I—,” Niall sent a quick glance towards Zayn, before looking back at his mug and taking a sip from it. “If it was just about me, I wouldn’t be as scared, you know?”

“What do you mean?” Zayn asked, shifting on the bed. He sat cross-legged on the other side, facing Niall.

“Well—,” Niall scratched at his neck with a small laugh. “This is probably not the best time to admit it, but… I like you. And I care about you. And the moment I realised that you were gone I think I’ve realised that I like you and care about you a bit more than I should. Than a friend should.”

With a shrug, Niall didn’t even try to look at Zayn, his eyes still studying the mug in his hands as if it was the most interesting thing in the room. And Zayn was studying Niall’s profile with similar expression, looking at the way he bit his lower lip and the way his cheeks blushed. Zayn wondered it that was caused by the wine or by the confession Niall just made. And most importantly, Zayn wondered what was he supposed to do now. His brain kind of froze, processing the words he had just heard.

“Fuck, Zayn, I'm sorry,” Niall started, running a hand through his hair. “I didn’t—I shouldn't have—I shouldn't have said that. I didn't want to make things even weirder and more complicated than they already are. I'm really sorry.”

Without a word, Zayn put his mug down on the floor beside the bed. Raising to knees, he— a bit awkwardly—shifted to get closer to the other man and, not sure what to do next, he placed his slightly shaking hand on Niall's cheek. It felt hot under his palm, whether it was from the blush or from the fact that Niall was a hot person in general. Or maybe it was just Zayn's hands that were cold. It didn't matter anyway so Zayn tried to make his brain think about more important things. Like the fact that—lead by Zayn's fingers on his chin—Niall slowly raised his head and reluctantly looked up at him. It was hard to read anything from his bright eyes, even though they were now staring straight into Zayn's.

Zayn gently caressed Niall's clenched jaw with his thumb, before asking, “Why are you sorry?”

“Because...” Niall started, his voice barely louder than a whisper, “I’ve picked the worst possible place and time to say what I said?”

Sitting back on his heels, so he was on Niall's eye-level instead of looking down on him, Zayn slid his hands to the back of the other man's head. He played with the soft hair at the nape of Niall's neck, making the latter’s eyes flutter.

“So you're not sorry for how you feel?” Zayn wanted to make sure. After receiving a firm nod from Niall, the corners of his lips quirked upwards, “Good.”

Closing the remaining distance between them, Zayn leaned forward to place a short kiss on Niall's lips. After a few seconds Zayn tried to move away, just to make sure the other man didn’t mind if Zayn continued what he was doing. Before he was able to do that, he felt Niall's hand on the back of his neck, keeping him close when Niall started to kiss him back eagerly.

“I’ve wanted to do that for so long,” Niall mumbled, not moving away. “The moment I saw you in that fucking warehouse and realised you were alright. Back in your apartment before I left this morning,” after each sentence Niall was pressing a kiss to Zayn’s lips, each lasting a bit longer than the previous one. “Every morning you came by to the office bringing me coffee and that smile of yours. Even the very first time you came there all soft and soaked from the rain.”

A shiver run from where Niall’s fingers were scraping lightly at Zayn’s neck, down Zayn's spine, all the way to his toes. Zayn felt like he was electrified and he could explode any second. And yet, he let himself be pulled closer when Niall’s arm rested on the small of his back. It wasn’t easy to focus, especially while being smothered with Niall’s kisses and little pecks that soon enough strayed and marked a trail across Zayn’s jawline and down his neck.

“Wait, are you—,” Zayn started, his breath catching in his throat. Niall immediately looked up, worried. “Are you serious? You really—All this time—?”

“Depends,” Niall shrugged, baffling Zayn a bit.

“On what?”

“On whether it freaks you out or turns you on,” Niall wanted to sound sly, but the laugh that bubbled out of his chest gave him away.

As an answer, Zayn combed Niall’s hair gently with both hands and giggled, not able to stop a smile.

“The latter, I think,” he answered truthfully. “Since I’ve been wanting basically the same thing. Maybe a bit more, even.”

“More?” Niall asked, raising his eyebrow. All of sudden his smile turned into something more predatory and he added in a low voice, “We can work on that.”

Zayn opened his mouth to answer, but Niall’s lips get in the way before he could do that. In a split second Zayn was pushed onto his back, so he was lying diagonally on the bed. Niall straddled him and hovered above him, not breaking the kiss for even a short moment. Half-consciously, Zayn placed his hands on both sides of Niall’s slim waist, feeling how his muscles moved underneath the thin t-shirt he was wearing.

It was like sensory overload. Tasting Niall. Feeling Niall’s lips on his, his body under his fingertips. Hearing all the little noises that escaped Niall’s mouth now and then. Smelling his scent. Seeing his red, swollen lips even after Zayn closed his eyes.

Zayn was light-headed. He felt like he was about to float away. The light touch of Niall’s hand roaming around his body was somehow grounding, but simultaneously it made the feeling intensify. Zayn’s hands started to wander. Caressing Niall’s sides before sliding up his back and scratching it through the t-shirt, they eventually made their way underneath the fabric. Zayn was slowly mapping the hot skin with his touch, hyper aware of every little sound Niall made in return, of every hitch in his breath, of every shiver running down his spine.

“Excluding everything that happened in between,” Zayn said, breathless. “This is the kind of wrap up of the day I was counting on this morning.”

Niall only snorted in response, biting at Zayn’s neck. Bracing himself with his arms on either side of Zayn’s neck, Niall looked down at him. His eyes looked darker than ever, his cheeks were bright red and a big smile was blooming on his face.

“Hopefully, I’ll be able to provide you with more wrap-ups, in-betweens and starts of the day like this,” Niall answered. He kissed the tip of Zayn’s nose, making the latter chuckle. “Without any crazy shit, I promise.”

“What if I like crazy shit?” Zayn raised his eyebrow, trying to sound smug.

If Niall’s laugh could be taken as any indication, he failed. Not giving him any chance to answer, Zayn wrapped his arms around Niall’s neck and tugged him closer to kiss the laugh out of his mouth. Niall didn’t resist.

“Oh, you like it crazy, huh Malik?” Niall asked, leaning back and sitting on Zayn’s tights. His eyebrows moved suggestively, but the grin on his face made it clear that he was joking. Although when his warm, big hands slipped underneath Zayn’s shirt, the latter wasn’t laughing. “You’re into kinky stuff? Biting, spanking or dirty talk?”

“Yeah, totally,” Zayn said with a chuckle. “All of them.”

Niall made a non-committal sound, pushing up the fabric on Zayn’s tee and bunching it under his armpits. While Zayn was taking off his shirt, Niall leaned down to place a kiss on his sternum.

“What else, latex? Pissing?” Niall continued. His lips were still on Zayn’s chest so the latter could feel that he was smiling.

“Ew, no!” Zayn answered with a laugh and Niall laughed back. “I’m not trying to criticise, but if that’s your way of seducing me, it’s not gonna work.”

“I think it’s going great, to be honest,” Niall grinned, leaning back so he could look at Zayn.

“Oh, how so?”

“Well, you  _ are _ lying shirtless underneath me, aren’t you?” Niall said, looking extremely pleased with himself.

Zayn only shook his head at that and sat up, with Niall still sitting on his tights. Wrapping his arms around the latter’s waist, Zayn kissed him slow and deep. 

“Speaking of. That’s a bit unfair, don’t you think?” Zayn asked, taking off Niall’s shirt before rolling them over, so he was on top now. He left a trail of kisses down Niall’s neck, finally settling just above his collarbone to leave a love bite there. Underneath him, Niall shivered and let out a small moan, tangling his fingers in Zayn’s hair. Encouraged by the reaction, Zayn continued to kiss down Niall’s chest, leaving small bites and hickeys on the way. A breathless “fuck” escaped Niall’s mouth when Zayn’s lips landed on his nipple and the latter happily started to lick and suck at it, making Niall tighten his grip in his hair.

“Not very chatty now, are ya?” Zayn mocked, shifting up so his face was on the same level as Niall’s.

“I’d really prefer if your lips went back to what they were doing, instead of making fun of me, thank you very much,” Niall said.

Even though it was clear that Niall wasn’t really mad, Zayn gladly obeyed. He left a trail of kisses all over Niall’s chest, devoting extra attention to his nipples that seemed to be a very sensitive area. Laying on top of him, Zayn could easily  _ feel  _ that Niall was already hard, pressed against his thigh. Experimentally, Zayn grinded his hips down, making them both moan. The lower Zayn's kisses had wandered on Niall's torso, the more Niall were squirming underneath him. 

Technically, they both were getting ready to sleep earlier, so other than the t-shirt—that had been already taken off and thrown aside a while ago—a pair of boxers was the only article of clothing Niall was still wearing. And at this point even that felt like too much.

Zayn's mouth left a trail just above the waistband of Niall's underwear, sucking another love bite over his hip bone. Before he got any further, Zayn crawled back up so his face was on the same level as Niall’s. Leaning down, Zayn placed a small kiss on the other man’s lips.

“You sure you want—,” Zayn started, nosing at Niall’s jaw. “Should I keep going or did you—”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Niall sighed before Zayn could even finish. He tangled his hand in Zayn’s hair, pulling him closer while at the same time he rocked his hips up in search of some friction. The kiss muffled the needy sounds that tried to escape their mouths. Lightly tugging at Zayn’s hair, Niall broke the kiss. “I’d never assumed you are the talkative type in bed.”

Zayn waggled his eyebrows, grinning down at Niall, “I’m full of surprises.”

Shaking his head at that, Niall managed to roll them over so he was straddling Zayn again, his hands sliding down Zayn’s body finally settled on the latter’s hips, gripping them firmly. The smile that had appeared on Niall’s lips was wicked. Almost dangerous.

Zayn suddenly felt hot all over.

“Let me see one of those surprises of yours, hm?” Niall said. 

Before Zayn could even react, Niall had disappeared from his view, but Zayn could  _ feel him _ —his mouth, more specifically—significantly lower and that feel made Zayn’s back arch with pleasure.

They both forgot about talking for a little while.

***

When Zayn was slowly waking up the next morning, a small smile bloomed on his face. The memories of the night before were still rather vivid in his mind. Unconsciously, his left hand wandered to his stomach in hope to find another, bigger hand resting there. He didn’t find it, though. After a moment he realised that the warm presence behind his back from where Niall spooned him before they fell asleep was gone, too. Blinking his eyes open, Zayn looked over his shoulder but the bed was empty. Ruffled covers on the other side were the only indication that Niall was there earlier. Confused, Zayn felt the sinking feeling of anxiety as he pulled himself to a seated position and looked around the room.

“Niall?” his voice was raspy from sleep. 

There was no answer. However, Zayn noticed that the bathroom door were open, so he slipped from under the covers and made his way there. The closer he get, the more he was certain that he could hear some muffled noises coming from there, but he couldn’t recognise them as anything. The anxiety was only raising, calling to Zayn’s mind the worst possible scenarios of what he could find in there. All of sudden he became very aware of what did he and Niall went through yesterday.

Not sure what to expect, Zayn flicked on the lights. It turned out it was one of the worst cases’ scenarios

“Niall?” Zayn said quietly before he rushed closer to the other man. “What happened? What’s wrong?”

Leaning against the shower stall, Niall was sitting on the floor, half-naked and shaking all over. His hands were twisted in his hair, knuckles white from where they were clutching at his head, eyes squeezed tight. The noises Zayn heard before turned out to be panting breaths Niall was taking.

Zayn dropped down on the floor, repeating his question, since Niall didn’t seem to hear him. After still not receiving any answer, Zayn gently touched Niall’s arm, trying not to startle him.

Slowly, as if with pain Niall opened his eyes. His look was absent, technically he was looking at Zayn but it was like he didn't recognise him. Only after another second or two, Niall blinked, focusing his gaze on Zayn's face.

“Zayn,” Niall croaked.

“I’m here, it's OK. What is happening, Niall, please tell me.”

“My head,” Niall answered, his face twisting in pain. “I feel like it's going to explode, it's never been so bad.”

Tugging at his hair, Niall closed his eyes again as he curled up into himself. Muffled whine escaped his pursed lips. Not knowing what else he could do, Zayn pulled Niall closer, wrapping his arms around the suffering man.

“It's them,” Niall added after a while as he mumbled it into Zayn's chest “I know it. It's like they amped up the frequency or something.”

Zayn cursed under his breath, stroking Niall's back, hoping to call him down at least a bit. There must had been something he could do to help him. 

“Get dressed,” Zayn decided eventually. Leaning away a bit, to make sure Niall heard him. “We need to get away from here. I'll drive us as far as needed until you get better. OK?”

Niall only nodded, looking up at Zayn with red-rimmed eyes and let himself be pulled up onto his feet. Zayn escorted him to the bedroom and after making sure Niall was safely seated on the bed, Zayn started to gather their things. There wasn't much to pack so after just a few minutes they were both ready to go. Walking Niall to the car, Zayn came back to the hostel to check out. The man behind the counter sounded rather bored when he was saying goodbye to Zayn and he didn't even care why they were leaving.

Soon enough, they drove off in the opposite direction of Manchester. Zayn had no idea where they were going, didn't pay that much attention to the roads. Luckily, it was rather easy to leave the main roads and get off to country ones where there were almost no cars, so Zayn could ignore speed limits without feeling  _ that  _ guilty.

But the worst part was that no matter how fast or how far he was going, Niall didn’t seem to get better. Every broken whine, every tear that made its way from his tightly squeezed eyes was breaking Zayn’s heart but he didn’t know what to do. So he kept going, stepping on the accelerator a bit more.

Although after a couple more miles, Zayn realised that it’s pointless. Finding a random field by the side of the road, he decided to pull over and shut the engine. After he got out of the car, he quickly walked around it to get to the passenger’s door.

“Niall, babe, come on,” Zayn said quietly, rubbing at Niall’s arm who just now realised that they had stopped.

Without arguing, Niall followed Zayn’s lead and got out of the car. They walked a few steps away from it and Zayn plonked down on the grassy ground, gently tugging at Niall’s arm so he did the same.

“Hey, look at me, OK?” Zayn said, taking the other man’s face in his hands. It took a moment but eventually, Niall lifted his head to do what he was asked to. “How’s your head? Is it any better?”

Gritting his teeth, Niall shook his head, “I can’t stand it, Zayn. It’s like—Like that… white noise from the first time. Worse.”

“I’m so sorry. I wish I could take that away from you, I’d do anything,” Zayn said, stroking Niall’s cheeks with his thumbs. “But I need you to try and focus on me for a bit, OK? We’ll try to calm down and figure out what to do, yeah? Breath with me, babe.”

Taking a slow, deep breath, Zayn didn’t take his eyes from Niall for even a second. Only after a couple of tries, Niall managed to calm his shallow breathing enough to synch with Zayn.

“Remember when you were explaining to me how this all worked? I think you’ve mentioned something about blocking or tracking some signals,” Zayn pointed out, keeping his voice quiet and gentle. “Can you tell me how this works?”

“It’s like—,” Niall started but then he closed his eyes and took a deep breath through his nose.

“Am I making it worse? Talking worsens the pain?” Zayn asked, worried.

Niall shook his head at that, lifting his hand to squeeze weakly at one of Zayn’s, still cupping his face. “No, it’s—It helps, a bit. It’s good to focus on something else. And it’s like—My head was full of buzzing phones? And I had to go through every single one to find what I was looking for, to pick it up or silence it. It’s exhausting. And now it feels like they’re ringing on high volume instead of just buzzing.”

“You’ve found me, remember?” Zayn smiled softly. “You were able to do that earlier. And I’m certain you could do that again, babe. I know you said it’s exhausting, but you could find their signal and stop this.”

“You’re probably right,” Niall agreed. “I just don’t know if I—There’s so many, Zayn.”

Shifting closer, Zayn wrapped his arms around Niall, pulling him to his chest. Niall’s body relaxed the tiniest bit as he tangled their fingers together and took a deep breath. Zayn hoped there was another way, another solution that wouldn’t made Niall go through this. Hiding his face in the blond hair, Zayn sighed.

“I know, babe. But I  _ know  _ you can do this. I’m with you. I wish I could help you with all this, I really do,” he said, pressing his lips to Niall’s temple.

“You are helping.”

Not sure what to do or what to expect, Zayn just held Niall close, mumbling encouragements and pressing little kisses to his temple. From how Niall was shaking in his arms or how tightly he was squeezing Zayn’s hand, Zayn could imagine how he was feeling. Little beads of sweat appeared on his forehead from the effort. 

The need to find those bastards who were hurting Niall like that was growing in Zayn with every little whimper that had escaped Niall’s mouth.

Zayn had no idea how much time they had spent there, sitting on a field in the middle of nowhere. It could be a few minutes or an hour, but it felt like an eternity. However, at some point, a small, surprised noise escaped Niall’s mouth. Alarmed, Zayn looked down at him. Niall’s breath hitched in his throat, before he relaxed in Zayn’s arms and let out a long exhale, as if he was holding his breath for a long time. He looked up at Zayn.

“You were right,” Niall panted. “It—Fuck, Zayn. It worked.”

“Really?” Zayn beamed, brushing Niall's wet fringe from his forehead. “I’m—You’re so amazing, babe. I'm so proud of you.”

“I like when you call me 'babe’,” Niall smiled weakly, closing his eyes again and hiding his face in Zayn's chest.

***

“OK, that’s fucking it,” Niall said, walking into the room holding something under his arm.

“What’s fucking it?” Zayn asked from where he was sitting on the bed.

About an hour ago, they'd checked in another hostel. At this point they must had been around a hundred miles away from Manchester. Probably pretty close to the Welsh border, Zayn guessed. They still wasn't sure whether it was necessary or not. It was safer. Even though being physically away from those madmen wasn't making much difference—as it turned out this morning—it still  _ felt _ safer.

“I'm not gonna sit and wait for their next move,” Niall said, plonking down on the bed next to Zayn. “I'm gonna make a move on my own.”

The thing he was carrying turned out to be a laptop that he quickly turned on.

“Where did you get that laptop from?” Zayn asked.

“I work in IT, petal. I always have a laptop with me,” Niall shrugged.

Zayn nodded, trying not to grin so widely in response the that pet name. “And what are you going to do?”

“Not sure yet. Try to get some info about them, see who they are and check what’s the deal with that damn thing I've gotten. If I'm lucky, though not sure what I'll find.”

“OK, but… How do you want to find out?” Zayn said.

Tearing his eyes away from the laptop, Niall looked up. Instead of answering right away, he scratched at his neck sheepishly, his eyes skipping from Zayn’s face to the wall behind him and back. Furrowing his brows, Zayn sent him a questioning look, not sure what was this about.

“Well, I—Facebook is a great place to start and figure out their names and basic info, and we know that Harry Styles guy. Then—Well, there’s plenty of places you can hack into to get information about someone.” Niall explained, not looking at Zayn.

“And you  _ can  _ and  _ will  _ hack into those places?” Zayn was more interested than scandalized.

Niall gave him a perplexed shrug, “Was quite good at it before and now that I have a bloody hacking device in my brain, it should go faster.”

“I mean—,” Zayn said. “I’m, like, really impressed right now. Just sayin’.”

Finally, Niall lifted his head to look at Zayn for more than a second and his lips slowly stretched out in a grin. He pushed his glasses up his nose and for some reason Zayn found it incredibly endearing. A lot of things was endearing when it came to Niall.

“You are?” Niall laughed. “I really should stop assuming that you’d be concerned by anything, shouldn’t I?”

“Probably,” Zayn grinned in response. “I quite enjoy the bad guy life.”

Shaking his head with a soft look on his face, Niall pointed out with a chuckle, “You haven’t even done anything bad, Zaynie.”

“Complicity is a crime,” Zayn shrugged.

As an answer, Niall rolled his eyes and leaned forward to press a kiss to Zayn’s lips. It was exciting, Zayn thought, that they were now allowed to do this. He had almost forgotten.

Or rather—he wasn’t even close to forgetting the previous night and he probably wouldn’t be for a while, but they didn’t really had the opportunity or time to talk about… it. Zayn didn’t want to risk, since he wasn’t sure whether Niall was still interested in those kind of activities. 

Considering where his tongue was at the moment—he was. 

“I might disappoint you but,” Niall said, breaking the kiss. “Hacking is nowhere as exciting as in films. It’s basically hours of poking here and there and trying to find a loophole in the firewall,” he pecked Zayn’s lips once more before leaning back and focusing back on the laptop. “Fingers crossed it will go quicker this time.”

 

Zayn didn’t mean to fall asleep, he really didn’t. When Niall started working, he just lay down with his head on Niall’s thigh so he could see the screen better. Stalking Styles’ Facebook page, they had learned that the other two were named Louis Tomlinson aka the Fierce Fairy and Liam Payne aka the Gentle Giant. Surprisingly, Niall appreciated the nicknames Zayn gave them. Although the men pages were mostly useless, they either didn’t post anything (Louis and Liam) or post weird-ass, cryptic shit (Harry).

That was when Niall started the actual work and instead of nice and neat Facebook page, Zayn saw lines of codes that meant nothing to him, some weird programs that did who-knows-what and some other stuff. He couldn’t be blamed for falling asleep eventually. Niall’s constant muttering under his breath and the quiet tapping on the keyboard worked almost like a lullaby.

When Zayn eventually woke up, Niall’s thigh was replaced by a pillow and he was covered with Niall’s hoodie. Niall was gone. Rapidly, Zayn lifted himself to a seated position, his stomach dropping with anxiety.

“Zayn? What is it, babe?”

Turning his head towards the voice, Zayn’s wide-opened eyes landed on Niall. The latter seemed rather fine, sitting at the tiny table in the corner of the room, with a mug of something steamy in his hand, opened laptop on the tabletop in front of him. He was watching Zayn with a concerned expression.

“I—,” Zayn started, blinking slowly at him. “I thought—It’s nothing. I guess I just have… bad memories of waking up without you in bed.”

As soon as those words left his mouth, Zayn could feel a blush creeping up his neck. It was all to be blamed on his still-asleep brain, its part responsible for filtering the weird shit Zayn was saying wasn’t working yet, apparently. Although, Niall reacted before Zayn could decide whether it was better to say something else to fix this or to keep his mouth shut. 

Placing his mug on the table, Niall got up and walked towards the bed. A soft smile played on his lips. He lay down and wrapped his arms around Zayn, pulling him in for a cuddle. Even if still a bit confused, Zayn wasn’t going to say no to that.

“I’m sorry for making you worry, Zaynie,” Niall said, pressing a kiss to his forehead. He moved away, just the slightest bit so he could look Zayn in the eyes. “Both now and in the morning.”

“Don’t apologise, it’s not your fault,” Zayn shrugged.

For some reason, it was hard for Zayn to maintain the eye contact, so he looked down at Niall’s chest. To some extent, he regretted saying what he had said. Not that it wasn’t true. He just had no idea what to do now, how to deal with this soft smiles and even softer looks he was getting. With this closeness that felt more intimate than yesterday when they were having sex. Niall made him feel all mushy and melting inside. Zayn never been good with dealing with such feelings.

“And thank you. For taking care of me and helping me earlier,” Niall continued, either not realising or not caring that Zayn was a bit uncomfortable with all the affection he was getting.

Zayn hid his face in Niall’s chest, mumbling into his shirt, “I haven’t done anything.”

“You did,” Niall said simply. “I hadn’t even thought about trying to block it. If it wasn’t for you calming me down, I wouldn’t have done that.”

Pressing his face further into Niall’s torso, Zayn muttered something even he couldn’t really understand and he could feel his face burning.

“You’re totally right, couldn’t’ve worded it better,” Niall said with a chuckle. “Good talk.”

Zayn bit at Niall’s pec through his t-shirt before leaning away and finally lifting his head up. Niall was already looking down at him with a wide grin on his face.

“Fuck off,” despite his words, Zayn’s lips curled into a small smile.

Closing the remaining distance between them Zayn pressed a kiss to the other man’s lips.  After just a few seconds, he pulled away. However, rather reluctantly since Niall’s fingers massaging the back of his head and  playing with his hair were a distraction almost effective enough.

“Anyway. What did you find out?” Zayn asked.

“About what?” Niall blinked his eyes open.

Raising his eyebrow at him, Zayn explained, “The bad guys? Weren’t you doing some research on them?”

“Oh, right. Not to brag but I did a great job and I probably deserve another kiss,” Niall puckered up his lips.

“We’ll see about that,” Zayn laughed.

As an answer to that, Niall’s lips turned into a pout. Zayn wasn’t sure whether it was supposed to make him feel guilty and comply, but he almost did. After a second or two Niall—apparently deeply offended—untangled his hand from Zayn’s hair and sat on the bed, reaching for the mug he abandoned on the table a while ago.

“There’s one for you as well, but I’m not sure if you still deserve it,” Niall said, pointing at the second cup he was holding.

With a thankful smile, Zayn pulled himself into seated position as well and took the still warm tea he was offered. Carefully, not to spill anything on the covers or himself, Zayn leaned forward to press a kiss to Niall’s cheek. It seemed to appease Niall enough to stop pouting and start telling Zayn about the results of his research.

“Well, on the bright side—they are not murderers,” Niall said.

“That’s really… reassuring,” Zayn nodded, his tone only a bit mocking.

“The deeper I’ve digged into this whole mess, the more I thought it is just a fucked up misunderstanding and they aren’t as bad as they seem,” Niall shrugged. “I mean they’re still a massive bag of dicks for kidnapping you, I haven’t forgotten about that. I just kind of understand them now or at least I think I do.”

Taking a sip of his tea—which was exactly how he liked it—and made a small sound to let Niall know he was still listening.

“From what I’ve found, they seem to be just a bunch of technically harmless thieves. But like… Robin Hood style?” Niall said.

“So they’re stealing from the rich and giving it to the poor?” Zayn raised his eyebrow.

“Basically. It was quite hard to connect the dots at first. I’ve found out that Liam worked for some insurance company as an… accounting assistant or something, doesn’t matter. But he was fired rather quickly. As I tried to check why, I saw that the company had been making some backroom deals, keeping huge amounts of money that belonged to the people insured there. I figured that Liam must had found out about it. So they got rid of him. But what was interesting, some time later, the money disappeared from MDs’ accounts and was redistributed to people who deserved it. It was a checkmate for the directors, because if they had reported it, the frauds would leak out.”

“Fuck, that's—,” Zayn shook his head. “I hate them a bit less now.”

Niall made an agreeing noise, as he finished his tea. Putting the mug back on the table, he lay down on the bed, massaging at his temple.

“Yeah and like— one of the people fucked over by the company was that Louis guy’s mum. She has some serious health problems and they denied her the money she should get for the hospitalisation or something. So I guess that's why Louis got involved. He's like… the biggest mama's boy I've ever seen, judging by his mum’s social media and stuff.” Niall laughed, absentmindedly tracing random patterns on Zayn's forearm. “They seem like— the least likely of committing any crime. Liam is the responsible one, or at least tried to be before he got fired. Louis has loads of little sisters and sick mom and family seems super important to him. Harry started working pretty early instead of going to university, to help his mum and sister. His parents got divorced when he was little. So they’re just a bunch of guys that’d been pretty knocked around in life and they decided to fix the injustice.”

Zayn hummed absent-minded, looking down at Niall’s fingers on his forearm. He tried to process all the information. Despite everything that had happened, he felt almost sympathetic to those guys. His own life wasn’t as easy as he wished it to be and every time he heard about the white collar crimes, he felt nothing but hatred for the—already disgustingly rich—MDs, stealing from people who already were in tough situations. Zayn almost admired what the Terrible Trio was doing.

“What are you thinking about?” Niall asked, squeezing at Zayn’s arm, making the latter look up.

With a shrug, Zayn placed down the empty mug he was still fiddling with, before he answered.

“I mean—knowing their perspective, changes mine a lot. In a way—pretty messed up way but still—the thing they’re doing is good, somehow. But that still doesn't excuse what the’ve done to you. Or the fact they kidnapped me.”

“I know, petal. They might thought we’re from the MDs, seeking revenge on them or anything. They’re pretty new at this whole thing from what I’ve gathered,” Niall said. “I’m not trying to justify what they did to us in any way. Just sharing what I’ve found.”

“You did a great job, babe,” Zayn smiled down at Niall. 

The latter was already looking at him with a lazy smile and halfway closed eyes. Sliding his hand down Zayn’s arm, Niall tangled their fingers together. He seemed like he was seconds from falling asleep.

“You OK?” Zayn asked, half concerned, half captivated.

“Yeah, ‘m just—Just tired,” Niall said. “But since I’ve done such a great job, I deserve that kiss now, don’t I?”

Leaning down with a smile, Zayn run his fingers through the other man's fringe. Niall's eyes fluttered close, before he reluctantly blinked them open.

“I guess you do,” Zayn smiled. “But you sure you're won't fall asleep halfway through?”

“I'll try my best not to and you'd better make sure to keep me entertained enough to stay awake,” Niall waggled his eyebrows, but his moves were slow-paced so it didn't look as seductive as he probably wanted it to.

Giggling, Zayn moved closer and pressed a kiss to Niall's forehead, then the tip of his nose and finally to his lips. Niall kissed back with eagerness that was rather surprising considering the barely-awake state he was into. But Zayn wasn’t going to complain. Making himself more comfortable, he lay down, partially on Niall and partially on the bed. He smiled into the kiss when he felt Niall’s arms wrapping lazily around his middle, keeping him close.

It felt different than the night before. Calmer, slower, without any real pressure of taking this any further. It was equally exciting, though. Zayn's chest felt too tight to contain his heavy-beating heart, his fingers were tingling, caressing Niall’s face. He felt happy.

“Hey, Niall?” Zayn broke the kiss.

“Yes, babe?” Niall hummed.

Blood was rushing in Zayn’s veins but it felt different than just a few seconds ago. The happiness Zayn was filled with, was slightly dulled by the nerves. But he had made a decision and was willing to keep his word.

“How sleepy are you?”

“A bit,” Niall said, opening his eyes and leaning back a bit. “Why?”

“I just—I kinda wanted to… talk. But it can wait if you’re—” Zayn started.

He tried to play it cool, but the fact that he couldn’t really meet Niall’s gaze might betrayed him. In answer to this, Niall shifted under him, sitting more upright. Furrowing his brows at Zayn, he said, “No, it’s OK. We can talk.”

“OK, great,” Zayn nodded. Untangling himself from Niall’s embrace, he sat on the bed. The sudden lack of contact between them felt weird, though, so he reached out to take one of Niall’s hands in his. “Let’s talk then.”

Keeping his head down, he absentmindedly started to play with Niall’s fingers, trying to get himself together.

After a few seconds, Niall asked with a small chuckle, “So? Talking usually requires exchanging words and stuff, you know?”

“Thank you, Captain Obvious,” Zayn laughed, sending the other man a quick glance. With a sigh, he tried to start again, “I just—I’m not sure how to start or how to… have this kind of talk, to be honest. It’s just—I like you. Quite a lot to be honest.”

Out of the corner of his eye, Zayn saw one side of Niall’s mouth flinching up. “I like you quite a lot, too. Glad we’ve settled that.”

“Yeah and I—I really like… Kissing you. And… doing other things. With you,” Zayn felt himself blush. After receiving an agreeing hum from Niall, he cleared his throat and continued. “Um—And it’s—It’s nice. I mean this thing between us, the thing we have now.”

“It is nice, yeah,” Niall agreed, rubbing the back of Zayn’s hand with his thumb. “Relax, petal.”

A small laugh escaped Zayn’s mouth. He sounded like a lovestruck teenager, he had no idea why he was acting like that. After all, he was a grown-up man talking to another grown-up man, who just happened to be the one Zayn had feelings for. Nothing he couldn’t handle.

“I don’t even know why I am so nervous,” he said. “The point is, I’ve been wondering—What is this… thing. That we have. Is there even a thing?”

“Well,” Niall started, sitting up opposite Zayn. With his free hand, he cupped the latter’s face, making him look up. “I agree with everything you’ve said. I like you and I’m happy with whatever it is between us. But if you’d like, I’d be even happier to make it more… I don’t know, official? I’d really like you to be my boyfriend, Zayn. If you want that, too.”

Still feeling his face burn, Zayn couldn’t stop the smile that appeared on his face. He tried to tone it down a bit, but he knew he’d lost when he could barely see Niall’s face by how much his eyes crinkled.

“I’d really like to be your boyfriend, too,” he answered. It required some effort to stop himself from smiling so he could kiss Niall, but Zayn made it, eventually.

***

This time when Zayn had woken up, he smiled at the heaviness of a warm arm thrown across his middle. Niall was there. Pressed closely to Zayn’s back he was still asleep, judging by the steady puffs of breath that were tickling Zayn’s neck. It was rather unusual for Zayn to wake up before—well, anyone, so he wasn’t really sure what to do. Slowly—not to stir the other man awake—Zayn rolled onto his other side to face Niall. His boyfriend Niall, he reminded himself. It was rather convenient that said boyfriend was asleep at the moment, because that way he couldn’t witness the huge, sappy smile that appeared on Zayn’s face. 

For a few moments he just lay there, his eyes skipping around Niall’s face, to his closed eyes with long lashes almost brushing his cheekbones, to his slightly parted lips and his tousled hair, more brown now than when they had first met. Zayn wasn’t sure whether he liked it better now or did he liked Niall better now in general.

Not able to stop himself, Zayn pushed the fringe out of Niall’s forehead before gently running his fingers down his cheek to the corner of his mouth. In response to that, the latter let out an unintelligible noise and his eyes fluttered open but closed even quicker. Niall ducked his head, tucking it under Zayn’s chin, making more abstract noises.

“Why ya watchin’ me in me sleep?” Niall mumbled. Despite his words, he cuddled closer to Zayn, tightening the grip he had on Zayn’s waist. “Creep.”

“Good morning to you too, babe,” Zayn laughed, kissing the top of Niall head. “Just woken up myself, wasn’t watching you.”

“Don’t make excuses, I know I’m irresistible to look at,” Niall’s words were almost drowned out by a big jawn he gave.

“Can’t argue with that.”

Finally after few more minutes, Niall lifted his head, slowly blinking his eyes open. A lazy smile bloomed on his face. He moved closer, wanting to kiss Zayn but the latter shifted slightly so Niall’s lips landed on his cheek. 

“I’m gonna spare you my morning breath, so let’s wait with kisses for a bit,” Zayn said.

With a dramatic groan Niall rolled over onto his back and sighed, “Knowing your lazy arse I won’t get any ‘til noon, will I? ‘M gonna set an example and go brush my teeth now.”

“You can’t know that!” Zayn tried to argue.

“You’re a lazy person in general, I can assume mornings bring out the worst in you,” Niall yelled from the bathroom. “Besides, you’ve told me this yourself some time ago.”

Zayn only chuckled into his pillow. Niall was right and the fact that Zayn was burrowing himself further into the covers would probably work against him if he wanted to argue. Listening to the muffled noises coming from the bathroom, Zayn closed his eyes with a small sigh. He could even fall asleep again if it wasn’t for Niall’s—slightly confused—voice calling his name again. To show that he was listening, Zayn let out a small questioning hum.

“Which toothbrush was mine?” Niall asked.

“The blue one,” Zayn furrowed his brows. “Why?”

“Nothing I just—Got a bit confused because I have another one at home and I don’t know, forgot which one is it.”

Absentmindedly hugging Niall’s pillow to his chest—because he felt like holding something and it was the closest, not because it smelt like Niall, he wasn’t  _ that  _ cheesy—Zayn said, a hint of jibe in his voice, “We can sign them if that’d help you?”

“Fook oh,” Niall said, his words hard to understand because he was in the middle of brushing his teeth already.

A few minutes later, he came back to the room, only half dressed since he had put on a pair of sweats that hung rather low on his hips, bright grin on his face.

“Unlike some of us, I’m all fresh and ready to canoodle,” Niall said, incredibly proud of himself, so it seemed.

“Canoodle?” Zayn couldn’t stop the laugh.

“I’d show you what it meant if you weren’t so lazy.”

“I know what it means, bugger,” without moving that much Zayn wanted to throw a pillow at Niall, but it just fell onto the floor rather pathetically. “And I’m not lazy.”

Leaning down, Niall pressed a kiss to the top of Zayn’s head with a poorly contained chuckle, “I can see that. I’m gonna go and fix us some tea, yeah? Feel free to join me in the kitchen if you ever untangle yourself from those covers.”

Zayn answered him in a very mature way by sticking out his tongue. When the door closed behind his boyfriend, Zayn sighed into the pillow before rolling out of bed. On his way to the bathroom, he pulled on the first t-shirt he found. After a few moments, he left the room to join Niall in the communal kitchen and get his well-deserved morning kisses.

***

The whole day Niall was absent-minded. Who wouldn’t, considering what he had been going through, but it still made Zayn worry. Niall was a bit groggy, complained once or twice about being tired, but he shrugged it off, blaming it on the fact that he hadn’t slept the best for a few nights and that he had a lot of his mind. Which were a completely valid explanations. Zayn tried to convince his boyfriend to take an afternoon nap, but the latter was only squirming on the bed, unable to fall asleep. Moreover, he was more forgetful. It wasn’t anything major, just things like their room number or whether he had put sugar in his tea already or not. Which was very odd, considering how good at remembering details Niall usually was. It could all be blamed on the exhaustion, though. Or so Zayn was telling himself.

Zayn lay on the bed, watching Niall thoughtfully. It was already evening, sun going down to hide behind the horizon, bathing the world outside in soft grey. Their room was lit up by a small lamp. Niall sat by the table, his eyes fixated on the turned-off laptop in front of him, his brows slightly furrowed. It was impossible to read anything from his expression and Zayn itched to approach him, smooth the wrinkles on his forehead and ask about whatever was bothering him. Even if Zayn had a pretty good guess on what would it be. 

Eventually, Zayn asked from his spot on the bed, “You’re OK, babe?”

Looking like he had just snapped out of a trance, Niall turned to look at Zayn, blinking at him a few times. A small smile appeared on his face.

“Yeah, sorry. Just got a bit—lost in me thoughts,” he shrugged, slightly self-consciously.

With a hum, Zayn tried to gently push him, “What thoughts?”

“Um—Like—You remember when I told you that I like you? Quite a lot?” Niall asked, not looking Zayn in the eyes.

“I do. And I hope you still do,” Zayn laughed.

He had absolutely no idea what Niall was on about. The fact that he seemed fidgety and anxious didn’t really help and Zayn pulled himself into a seated position. Just in case Niall would need him.

“Yeah and I—I mean I do, obviously, but—Would you mind… I don’t know, taking it a step further?”

“Further?” Zayn furrowed his brows. Yesterday they had settled they wanted to try being in a relationship. What did Niall mean by a step further?

Clearing his throat and sending a quick glance towards Zayn, Niall continued, “You know, we do… things together and it’s wonderful but I was wondering. What are we? Are we anything? Like is there even a ‘we’?”

Completely dumbfounded, Zayn raised his brows in a questioning gesture. He chuckled.

“You're kidding, right babe?”

“No, why would I—,” Niall mumbled, his cheeks turning red. “I mean I know it's very soon and I'm sorry if you— I just thought— Nevermind.”

“Niall, wait,” Zayn shifted so he was sitting on the edge of the bed. “I don't understand what you're talking about.”

Niall wasn't even looking at him, blinking at the tabletop and biting at his thumbnail. Not lifting his head, he got up.

“I just—I kinda thought you'd want to… be with me. Like in a relationship. But it's OK, it's fine, don't worry about it. I'm gonna—”

He made a vague gesture with his hand and walked towards the door. But before he could leave, Zayn grabbed his hand and made him turn around. Not having any idea what was going on, he cupped Niall's face with his free hand.

“But we are in a relationship. Aren't we? I thought… I thought we've settled that yesterday?” Zayn wasn't even sure himself. This whole situation made him believe his worries from earlier might had been valid.

“We—What?”

“Babe, what's going on? We've had this exact same talk yesterday. You said you want me to be your boyfriend. You don't remember?” Zayn smiled softly, rubbing his thumb across Niall's cheekbone to calm him down.

“I don't… remember?” Niall repeated, his eyes wide with shock. It sounded more like a question, as if Niall was processing this. 

His face was pale when he took a step back, making Zayn’s hand slide off his cheek. 

“Niall, it’s OK, it’s—,” Zayn tried, but he got interrupted immediately.

“No, Zayn,” Niall started shaking his head. “This is not OK, I’m—I  _ forgot _ , Zayn. How could I not remember such a thing? How can I—Fuck, this—There’s something very wrong going on with my brain.”

Seeing the look on Niall’s face Zayn felt his own stomach drop. It was one thing to suspect that something was happening but having Niall confirm it, was totally different. It turned the suspections into something real. And frightening.

“It’s because of the Supercomputer?” Zayn asked, although he knew the answer.

“It has to be!” Niall cried out, taking another step back. He steadied himself, resting his hand against the wall. “Fuck, I feel like I’m going to be sick.”

“Babe…” Zayn reached out, not sure whether Niall needed some space now or not. The latter grabbed Zayn’s extended hand and let himself be pulled closer. Immediately, Zayn wrapped his arms around his boyfriend, feeling Niall’s shaky exhale on his chest. Holding Niall close, Zayn rubbed his back, hoping that would help him calm down.

“I’m scared, Zayn,” Niall said, his voice sounding so small it made Zayn’s heart break. “I wasn’t really before, but—I can’t just… forget. It’s small things right now, but who knows what’s gonna be next. I didn’t remember that talk and—Fuck. I can’t—I can’t forget you.”

“You won’t,” Zayn said firmly. Taking Niall’s face in his hands, he made the latter look up at him. Seeing Niall’s red-rimmed eyes, Zayn pressed a kiss to his forehead. “I won’t let you. We’re gonna take care of this.”

***

It was obvious that they need to take care of this whole thing. Running away for something they didn’t even do—or at least not intentionally—wasn’t good. And they couldn’t do that forever. However, the fact that Niall was being perpetually hurt, made them try to take care of the problem as soon as it was possible. Even though Zayn was trying to calm Niall down, he was just as scared.  Who knew if there hadn’t been more of the little things or conversations that had been deleted from Niall’s memory. But they didn’t understand what was happening with Niall’s brain, they even had no idea how did that whole supercomputer worked. So there was only one way out of this whole situation.

The Terrible Trio.

All the personal info that Niall had managed to gather on them, painted a picture of a group of good people that had been beat around by life pretty badly and they decided to get back at it. But they were pretty much harmless. Or so Zayn wanted to believe.

If he had seen any other solution, he probably would have took it. But there seemed to be none and Niall had suffered enough. They didn’t want to risk anymore. So after a—relatively short—talk, they had decided to make contact with Louis and his crew.

Using the burner phone Niall had picked up from the store the other day, they planned to make the call. Zayn had to be the one to do the talking since the Terrible Trio still had no idea that Niall was involved in this. Or so Zayn hoped.

Not wanting to wait till the morning, Zayn insisted on dealing with it straight away. If he could save Niall from suffering once again, he was willing to take the chance.

“You're ready?” Niall asked quietly, tangling their fingers together.

“Not really,” Zayn answered with a nervous chuckle. “I mean, I’ve obviously talked with my evil hacker-mastermind kidnappers before, it’s not like I’m new at this.”

“Obviously,” Niall snorted. “It’ll be OK, they can’t do anything to you from so far away.”

Zayn nodded, but it was more like an automatic response, rather than expression of what he was really feeling. His eyes were fixed on the phone, lying on the bed in front of him. The ten digits Niall had tapped in there a few moments ago were staring right back at Zayn, making his hands shake. Louis’ number, supposedly.

“They can to you, though. I just—Let’s just get this done,” Zayn took a deep breath and he felt Niall squeezing at his hand in an encouraging gesture.

He pressed the dial button.

Picking up the phone, Zayn put it on speaker so Niall could hear the whole conversation, too. The steady, echoing bleep of the dialling tone seemed loud in the quiet of the room as they waited for someone to pick up.

Before the fourth signal could end properly, there was a small crack on the line and a voice on the other side asked, “Hello?”

Not really sure with whom he was talking, Zayn’s mind went blank for a second. He could still hear the blood rushing in his ears. Taking a quiet breath, he said, trying to sound confident, “We’re ready to cooperate.”

There was a moment of silence on the line. Just when Zayn started to wonder whether or not they’d gotten a wrong number, he heard some inaudible noises in the phone, before the voice spoke again.

“Who is this?” the guy on the other side asked sharply. “If you are who I think you are you better not make any demands because you don’t have any fucking right to, you fucking loser.”

At this point Zayn was sure that it was indeed the Louis guy. His tone and accent was extraordinary enough to stuck in one’s head for a long time.

“I think I do after you kidnapped me,” Zayn said, feeling the annoyance growing inside him.

“You are the one who fucking stole from me and don’t think I can’t find you and get back what is mine.”

“Oh, was that a threat?” Zayn asked, receiving a—slightly disapproving—eyebrows-raised look from Niall. Ignoring it, Zayn continued, “Because if so, I’ve learned enough about you to know you’re bullshitting.”

There was a beat of silence on the line before Louis answered, “You don’t know shit about me.”

“Wanna bet? How’s your mum doing?”

The moment those words left his mouth, Zayn knew that it was a cruel move considering how things were, but he couldn't’t take that back now.

“You fucking piece of shit,” Louis’ voice was low with anger. “I don’t fucking know what you know, but don’t you fucking dare saying anything more. I’m gonna fucking end you. And that fucking proves that you're just a fucking thieving piece of rubbish, because there’s no way you could get things on me without it. It’s a fuckin—”

Louis’ voice went from an angry growl to rageful yelling. Zayn wanted to stop him and explain but he was quite certain that the other guy couldn’t even hear him anymore. Zayn might had just blown their chance.

After a moment there was some incoherent mumbling coming through the Tomlinson guy’s screaming and some rustling on the line. Almost convinced that the call was gonna be over within seconds, Zayn was surprised at the new voice taking Louis’ place.

“Look, I guess none of us wants any more trouble, right?” the voice wasn’t slow as Harry’s so it must belong to the Gentle Giant then. “I thought you said you wanted to cooperate.”

“Yeah, I mean—” Zayn started, not sure where to go from there. He decided on being sincere. “It was a shitty thing of me to say, I’m really sorry. I didn’t mean it that way but like… I know you. Got to know some things about you that made me believe that we can actually work together and part as soon as this is all over. It’s just some… horrible misunderstanding.”

“So you say that you  _ do  _ have our programme?” Liam made sure.

Biting at his lower lip, Zayn hesitated. It was more than obvious at this point, he just had to confirm it. It was really hard to shake off the feeling that it all can be a set-up, though. The gentle squeeze of his hand and an encouraging nod Niall sent him eventually made Zayn continue.

“Yes,” he breathed out. “I mean… my boyfriend has it. And we can’t risk it hurting him and messing with his brain more.”

“What do you—?” Liam asked on the other side, but there was some background noises and yelling. 

The phone must had been yanked out of Liam’s hand, because soon enough Louis was back on the line.

“So you’re saying it’s actually working?” he asked.

Zayn furrowed his brows. “Yes? You didn’t know it does?”

“Well, it was fucking stolen from me before I could really test it, you know?” Louis said, sarcasm clear as day in his voice.

“We didn’t intend to take it for fuck’s sake!” Zayn repeated, trying not to say something stupid again. “Besides you had to know it was working when you were messing with it like two days ago!”

“What the fuck are you on about? I haven’t done anything with it,” Louis sounded properly offended by the accusation.

Even more confused, Zayn sent Niall a look, but the latter only shrugged. They weren’t sure whether Louis was just messing with them or he really didn’t know what they meant.

“Two days ago it went crazy to the point the signals physically hurt him. And it keeps messing with his brain,” Zayn explained. “You didn’t do this?”

“No, what the fuck, why would I? I didn’t even know it works, how could I know your boyfriend fucking installed it in his brain?” Louis yelled.

“Didn’t you design it?”

Louis let out an annoyed mumble, before he asked, his tone way more easy this time, “What did you mean, saying it’s messing with his brain? I mean—as pissed off I still am for the fact you’ve stole the work of my life—intently or not—I didn’t mean to harm any of you. Scare? By kidnapping you? Hell yeah. But not really harm in any way. So I’m sorry for that.”

The part about the kidnapping made Zayn angry, but it somehow made him believe that Louis wasn’t lying. He admitted he totally intended it, so why would he be dishonest about the rest? Or so Zayn tried to believe.

“This thing is… I don’t know, messing with Niall’s memory. He forgets stuff, it’s nothing major right now, but like… bits from the last few days. It’s like his brain was an overloaded hard drive. And we really don’t want to risk it getting worse.”

“Fuck. This is totally not how this was supposed to work,” Louis said, sounding really concerned. “But the whole thing—it’s just pretty new and buggy and I was still trying to update and fix everything before I’d even think about trying it out. I’m sorry that boyfriend of yours had involuntarily became my guinea pig.”

“You can turn that thing on? Or fix it somehow?” Zayn asked.

Louis took a deep breath and there was a short pause on the line as he probably considered it. Gnawing at his bottom lip, Zayn waited for answer, absentmindedly rubbing his thumb against the back of Niall’s hand.

“I think so?” Louis got out eventually, but it sounded more like a question. “I think I can make like—a counterprogramme. I guess that could work?”

At least partially relieved, Zayn let out a breath he was holding, “OK. Would it be safe? And how much time would it take?”

“It should be. And I don’t know, not much I guess. But I won’t be able to do it from the distance, I don’t have the original thing to work with. You’d have to come here so I could change the code.”

Zayn exchanged a quick look with Niall. They’d talked about it and decided that the Terrible Trio didn’t seem dangerous. But it was one thing to call them and something completely different to voluntarily go back straight to their evil lair. All of the things Louis had said sounded pretty convincing and sincere. There was still that bit of insecurity. That was their best—and probably the only—shot, though.

“We could be back in Manchester in a few hours. If you can promise me this is not a trap?” Zayn asked. As if Louis would hypothetically confess him whether his plans were evil or not.

“Mate, we’re not criminals. We won’t do anything to you, you have my word,” Louis said. “I mean—I know I might not be a reliable man considering the kidnapping thing earlier, but we’re sorry about that, OK? I mean you kinda deserved it, but we are sorry. That thing wasn’t supposed to hurt anyone.”

“OK, yeah. I’m willing to trust you, although I’m don't know if I should,” Zayn sighed. “I’m not sure if we’ll be able to find that warehouse again.”

“I’ll send you the address and I’ll start working on that programme, yeah? Once again—it’s fucking shitty it turned out that way, I’m sorry. Although you kinda brought that on yourselves,” Louis said.

“We’ll see you in a few hours,” Zayn ignored Louis’ words and ended the call.

For a minute or two, he was just staring at the phone in his hand, not sure how to react. There was a loud sound, implying that he’d gotten a new message. When Zayn opened it, it turned out to be the address Louis had promised him. Surprisingly, Zayn really believed in everything he said.

“We should get going,” Zayn said after a while.

Confused, Niall asked, “Now? We can get some rest and drive back in the morning.”

With a sigh, Zayn got out of bed and walked aimlessly around the room, finally stopping by the window. He could feel Niall’s eyes watching him. That didn’t help to settle his nerves. 

“Yeah but—it feels like it’s getting worse so I don’t want to wait and risk another day. Louis said it’s full of bugs and glitches, who knows wha—,” Zayn stopped and shrugged, turning his eyes away.

“I know, Zayn. I try to be rational about all this but it fucking scares the shit outta me, too,” Niall admitted with a humorless chuckle. “But I’d rather risk waiting one more night than crash on some country road, because I know I’m too tired to drive.”

“I can drive,” Zayn offered.

Niall raised an eyebrow at him before sending Zayn a soft smile, “Are you sure? Because that’s at least a three hour drive and I know you’re just as tired. I won’t let you do that.”

“But—”

“No, Zayn. I know that you’re worried. I am, too. I wanted to find a solution to this so badly but I’ve never thought we’d find one so quickly. It’s gonna be over tomorrow, babe, I can wait a few more hours. And make sure both of us are safe and not likely to wrap around a tree somewhere.”

Shifting on the bed, Niall sat on the edge of it and reached out to take Zayn’s hands. Zayn let himself be pulled closer. Niall wrapped his arms around Zayn’s waist and rested his chin on Zayn’s belly, looking up at him.

“I haven’t even used that bloody thing today and it gets frantic after it’s being put to use. Or I think that’s how it is. The point is I’ll be fine.”

With a sigh, Zayn run his hand through his boyfriend’s hair, cupping his cheek afterwards, “You sure you wanna stay?”

Niall nodded solemnly, sending him a smile. Zayn wasn’t sure if he was really convinced but to be fair—he didn’t think Niall was either. But maybe he was right. Maybe it was a good idea not to get too crazy about it now. It’s going to be over in a few hours anyway.

“I just want you to know that I’d rather get your ass there as soon as possible,” Zayn said, trying to sound stern.

“And I just want you to know that you’re pretty terrible at trying to be a bad cop,” Niall grinned. Moving his head so he could press a kiss to Zayn’s stomach, Niall glanced back up and added, “But at least it’s cute when you try.”

“What the fuck are you on about? I’m tough as fuck!” Zayn wanted to move away, but Niall’s arms kept him close.

“Whatever helps you sleep at night, love,” Niall chuckled.

Zayn tried to put on his best offended face, but he got a bit distracted when Niall wrapped his arms around his neck to pull him down for a kiss. It was chaste, lasting only a few seconds. Niall broke it just to move on the bed so he could lie down and pull Zayn with him. Laying on his side, Zayn pressed his lips to Niall's, making the kiss more heated this time. Niall didn't seem to mind, his hand roaming down Zayn's side and squeezing at his hip bone.

“I have an idea,” Niall said, his lips brushing against Zayn's as he did so.

Not opening his eyes, Zayn let out a hum to show he was listening.

“You know,” Niall started, kissing Zayn quickly. “There were some other things we've been doing lately. I might have forgotten them too, you never know. You could remind me, just to make sure I remember everything.”

Chuckling and shaking his head at that, Zayn leaned forward, his lips finding the column of Niall's neck. He peppered it with little pecks.

“You're really gonna use  _ that  _ as an excuse to have sex?” Zayn laughed, biting at Niall's collarbone.

“Just did,” Niall sounded very pleased with himself.

“Weren't we supposed to get some sleep?” Zayn asked. Although, his hands had already made their was under Niall's shirt. He could feel Niall's slipping into the back pockets of his jeans as Niall pulled him closer. There was no space left between them.

“We were. But I think it'll be easier to fall asleep if we tire ourselves out first, you know?”

***

“You sure you can drive? Cause if—”

“Zayn, for the love of God, ask me that again and I’m gonna leave you here, I swear,” Niall sent him a glare over the roof of the car before getting in on the driver’s side.

With a defeated sigh, Zayn followed, taking the passenger seat. A small pout appeared on his face when he fastened his seat belts and—maybe slightly ostentatiously—didn’t look at Niall. Niall let out a small chuckle and Zayn didn’t have to look at him to know that he just rolled his eyes.

“Babe?” Niall started, getting an noncommittal sound in response. “I’m not dying, you know that, right?”

“I’m not saying anything,” Zayn said defensively. “I was just trying to be nice.”

“I know and I love that you care about me like that, but I can handle the driving, OK?” Niall nudged Zayn with his arm. “We can switch later if that would make you happy.”

When Niall nudged him again, Zayn couldn’t help but crack up a smile. Gently pushing Niall back with his elbow, Zayn said with poorly contained laughter, “Fuck off, now you’re making fun of me.”

“I’m not! I really love how caring you are, c’mon, babe. Wanna kiss and make up?”

Shaking his head fondly, Zayn finally turned his face around and pressed a sweet, short kiss to Niall’s lips. Before either of them could take it any further, Zayn leaned back.

“Fine. Now let’s go, we should’ve been there yesterday.”

“Chill, petal, it’s barely 7 o’clock. Besides it’s not like we have a deadline,” Niall said, but he started the engine nonetheless.

It was almost quiet in the car, excluding the steady hum of the engine and the radio playing quietly in the background, rustling  when they were driving through countryside. They weren't talking much. However, the silence wasn't really a heavy, weighting one.

Zayn let his head rest against the backrest of his seat as he was looking outside the window, drifting away a bit, but not really falling asleep. Quite surprisingly, he felt well rested, even considering that they didn't sleep much that night. Waking up to Niall peppering his shoulder with little kisses, made it rather bearable to get up around 6 AM.

Zayn couldn't believe it was only a few days since they had left Manchester. It felt like a completely different lifetime, now when he thought about it. And—if everything went well—it would be over and they'd be able to get back to their old lives. It was a nice thought. Even though this whole mess brought him and Niall together, Zayn was more than happy to end it as soon as possible. He was full of excited anticipation, at this point pushing away the bad scenarios. Niall felt good in the morning, he didn't seem to have any more memory issues and his smile was wide and bright, making his eyes sparkle. It all was going to be fine.

“When this whole thing is over,” Niall said, his voice just loud enough to be heard over the hum of the engine and the cracking of the almost-losing-signal radio. Zayn turned his head away from the window to look at his boyfriend as he continued, “I'm gonna take you for a road trip. It would be aces. We'd be doing mostly what we did now, but like… without all that ‘being on the run’ crap.”

Zayn snorted at the last part, “Are you really going to do that?”

“Of course! And I need to take you for a proper first date,” the corner of Niall’s lips quirked up, as he sent a quick glance at Zayn. “We kinda skipped that part, didn’t we, love?”

Zayn bit at his lower lip to try and tone down the smile that appeared on his face. Although he could see that Niall’s cheeks turned pink as well and a little dimple appeared in his cheek. Feeling that weird tingling in his stomach, Zayn tired not to dwell too much on the fact that it was the second time Niall called him “love”. And he most definitely wasn’t thinking whether it meant anything or not.

“Yeah, we kinda did,” Zayn shrugged. “But that’s OK, don’t—”

“Hush,” Niall cut him off before Zayn could finish the sentence. “You deserve to be wooed properly and you will be wooed properly.”

Zayn giggled—literally giggled—both at Niall’s word choice and at the perspective of being  _ wooed  _ itself. It sounded exciting. “Can’t wait then,” he answered.

With his eyes fixed on the road, Niall reached over and took Zayn’s hand in his own, tangling their fingers together. This time instead of trying to contain his smile, Zayn simply turned his face toward the window, so Niall wouldn’t notice the idiotic grin and a blush present on his face.

 

The drive was mostly uneventful. They stopped just once to fuel up and Zayn bought them some coffee—surprisingly tasty for a petrol station. The radio at Niall’s car kept acting up. At some point he decided that since they were going to meet the Trio, they obviously wasn’t hiding anymore, so he just turned his phone. Niall swatted at Zayn’s hand when he tried to help him with plugging the phone in. He mumbled something about driving music being too sacred for Zayn to touch it. There is a chance he’d be able to, at some point in the—rather distant—future, but right now Niall won’t let him mess with his playlist. Not having another choice, Zayn lifted his hands in surrender, letting Niall set it up himself.

Soon enough, he started singing along to whatever song came up. It was both entertaining and rewarding to witness, since Niall had an amazing voice. In the few songs Zayn knew—Niall’s playlist was mostly some old-school rock Zayn recognised but didn’t know the lyrics to—he joined Niall in singing, receiving a brilliant smile from the latter.

Now that Zayn thought about this, it really felt like a road trip. It was like the prospect of dealing with the Supercomputer lifted some weight out of their shoulders, even though they didn’t noticed it was even there earlier. There still was a chance that it all was just a bait that they had willingly taken, but Zayn really wanted to trust those guys. Which seemed like a pretty stupid thing to do, but did they really have another choice? It was hard to say, so Zayn just tried to stuff all the dark thoughts to the back of his mind and didn’t bring them up until they were back in Manchester. The fact that Niall had felt great today made it easier to do so. He didn’t have any headaches or more blank spaces in his memory, no weird tiredness or anything like that. Maybe Niall was right saying that the Supercomputer rampaged only after someone’s used it rather intensely. Although quoting Niall’s words from this morning “Some good night sleep and those sinful lips of yours, Malik, are exactly what one needs to recover.”

***

“You OK?”

Slightly surprised by the question, Niall sent Zayn a questioning look, “Yeah, why?”

“Just making sure. We’re—we’re almost there,” Zayn said with a shrug.

“Yeah, I know,” Niall sighed. Zayn couldn’t help but notice that his grip on the steering wheel tightened a bit. “But I have a good feeling, you know? Those guys seem to be too fucking incompetent to actually harm us in anyway.”

“That’s actually a good point,” Zayn chuckled.

The surrounding started to look familiar. Labyrinths of red-brick buildings, some in better and some in worse condition. It still didn’t look inviting in the slightest. Niall drove off the gravel road, parking the car on the side of a random building. He cut off the engine and for a moment they were sitting in complete silence.

“Ready?” Niall asked eventually.

He held out his hand for Zayn and turned around to face him, a small smile on his lips. 

“Probably not,” Zayn laughed, taking Niall’s hand nonetheless. “But I won’t be more ready, so we can as well go now.”

With an encouraging squeeze, Niall let go of Zayn’s palm so they could get out of the car. After locking it, Niall walked around the hood to join Zayn. He linked their hands together and started walking towards the passage in between two buildings.

“You know which one it was?” Zayn asked.

“I think so,” Niall shrugged. “I mean I can sense a signal somewhere here and I doubt any of those warehouses are inhabited except the evil den we’re heading to.”

“Fair point.”

“Now that I think about it,” Niall said, sounding thoughtful, “we could take something to protect ourselves. Like a crowbar or a hammer, I think I have something like that in the boot. Or a frying pan.”

Zayn raised his eyebrows at the last one, letting out a short laugh, “Frying pan?”

“Haven’t you seen  _ Tangled _ ? Frying pan is the ultimate weapon, mate.”

“You’re talking gibberish, babe.”

“Maybe. I think that’s my coping mechanism,” Niall admitted. They were just about to turn around a corner, when Niall stopped, tugging at Zayn’s to keep him in place, too. “OK, I think they’re just right there. And before we go, I just wanted to do this.”

Before Zayn had the time to say something or react in any different way, Niall grabbed his face and kissed him long and deep.

“OK?” Zayn said confused, when they finally parted.

“It wasn’t a goodbye kiss or some shit like that. I just needed some encouragement, I think,” Niall grinned sheepishly. “And besides, I really love to kiss you.”

“I love to kiss you, too,” Zayn answered, feeling a bit dizzy.

Not wanting to postpone this any more, they started making their way to the warehouse again. It turned out that Niall was right—they did find the right place. Zayn was convinced about it when he saw a lone figure loitering by the entrance. After getting a closer look, Zayn slowed down his pace. Seeing the Gentle Giant again brought back some—not exactly pleasant—memories and it made Zayn’s stomach drop. Niall stopped, sending him a concerned look and Zayn smiled tightly in return.

“Oh, you’re here! Hello,” the Gentle Giant said when they approached him. He smiled warmly at them, “I’m Liam, it’s good to see you two. I wanted to make sure you’d know where to go. And also—I’m really sorry. For everything that we did to you. And for the kidnapping you, Zayn, I was trying to tell Louis it was a bad idea but he wouldn’t listen. He’s just crazy about his work and he can be pretty mean. But I’m really sorry for everything.”

Confused by that stream of words that escaped the Gentle Giant’s mouth, Zayn raised his eyebrows at him, not sure how to react to this. The knot in his stomach loosened a bit. Liam really seemed like the least intimidating person, excluding the fact how big he was. Appearances could be really deceiving.

“We—” Niall started, probably just as surprised. “We really appreciate that. We don’t want any more trouble.”

“We don’t want any, either!” Liam assured quickly. “I promise we’re not planning anything and Lou’s gonna try to free you from the device. So let’s go then, OK?”

Liam went first, holding the door for them. Exchanging a look, Zayn and Niall soon followed him inside. The space they entered looked as domestic as an old warehouse could. There was a worn out couch covered with some bright-coloured throw on it, a huge wooden box in front of it that served as a coffee table, a proper table with four—completely different—chairs, a shelf half filled with books and notebooks. One of the corners had been adapted as a kitchen area. There were even some plants deployed in random places around the room. The only part that resembled the actual purpose of the warehouse was the far end of the room. Half of the back wall was occupied by industrial shelves filled with various tools and electronic parts. Right next to it there was a long work table on which there was a computer with two monitors, a laptop and some other stuff Zayn couldn’t classify. There were cables and wires snaking all over the floor.

This is not exactly how Zayn imagined an evil lair to look like.

As soon as they entered the main area, Zayn noticed the Styles guy approaching him. His hair was pulled into a messy bun and he had a plain navy shirt and a pair of jeans which made him look… way too normal in comparison to what Zayn saw earlier.

“Hello,” Styles said, his voice deep and slow. “I’m glad you’re here. I know you might not have the best memories, but I promise this time would be better. You want something to drink or to eat? I can bring you something.”

“We—” Zayn started, but before he could even come up with a possible ending to this sentence, there was a snicker followed by a heavy sigh coming from the other end of the room. 

Looking up, Zayn noticed the third member of the Terrible Trio. Louis was walking towards them, holding yet another laptop, his eyes fixated on the screen as he was pressing some buttons with his free hand. When he got close enough to the rest, he stopped and looked up with a raised  eyebrows.

“OK, I know you,” he looked at Zayn, before his eyes skipped to Niall. “So you must be the lucky Neil who upgraded his brain.”

“Yes. And it’s Niall,” Niall corrected him, but Louis only waved his hand at this.

“Whatever. I assume you’re more interested in getting rid of this thing than in victuals that young Harold is offering.”

“I was trying to be a nice!” Styles tried to defend himself.

“I know, you’re too nice for anyone’s good, babe,” Louis patted him affectionately on the cheek.

Zayn’s eyes were skipping from one person to another, trying to figure out what was going on. At this point he was convinced that this was just how things were around this guys. He exchanged a look with Niall, but his boyfriend was just as lost as he.

“Yeah, we really want to get rid if it,” Zayn said eventually. “Did you figure out how to do it?”

“Of course I did, I’m a genius,” Louis said. He turned around and walked towards the couch. “I need Neil to try and hack my laptop, so I’ll be able to get a hold of Jarvis since there was just one copy. Then I will change the coding into a counterprogram that would basically delete all traces of the computer in his brain.”

“Jarvis?” Zayn asked, before he could think it through.

“Yeah,” Louis said absently, already focused back on the laptop.

“That’s what Lou named the device,” Liam interjected helpfully. “It’s an Iron Man reference.”

“I—I know,” Zayn nodded, surprised. He felt a sudden rush of sympathy towards Louis. Clearing his throat, Zayn added, “So you want to delete it?”

Tearing his eyes from the screen for a moment, Louis blinked up at Zayn. “Yeah. I figured that would be the best option to help him. Can’t say I’m happy about destroying the thing I’ve worked on for so fucking long, but it is what it is. I don’t want it to do any harm. Besides I have all the notes and bits of it saved so I would be able to recreate it. Hopefully.”

That was another thing that Zayn didn’t expect. Yes, he heard when Louis said he wanted to help because hurting people was not the purpose of the thing—Jarvis—he created and Zayn even believed him then. But he wasn’t expecting him to be willing to destroy it completely. Not after everything that happened. With every passing second Zayn became more and more convinced that this whole thing can work out and that Louis’ intentions really were good.

“That’s—” Niall started, catching Louis’ attention. “I really appreciate it. Thank you.”

Louis only shrugged in response. Patting the space beside him on the couch, he went back to typing on his laptop. “Now come here so we can start.”

Letting go of Zayn’s hand, Niall did as he was told. Almost automatically, as if he was being attracted by a magnet, Zayn followed him and took one of the chairs on his way to sit beside the couch.

“Oh, OK, you’ve already connected to it,” Louis said, sending a quick glance towards Niall. “Is it, like, automatic reaction or do you need to work on it?”

He sounded genuinely curious about how the device worked. Niall shrugged and said, “Mostly automatic, I can sense every electronic device nearby but I need to focus to connect with a particular one. I don’t know if that makes sense.”

Louis nodded, “Kinda. And that means that the experiment was more or less successful. Minus the pain and memory loss.”

Niall snorted, looking at the screen in front of Louis. Zayn had no idea if he understood anything that was there, because it seemed like lines and lines of random letters to him. He just hoped Louis wasn’t going to mess with Niall’s brain any more.

After a few more minutes, filled mostly with relative silence—disrupted by the constant tapping of Louis’ keyboard and some weird noises Harry was making in the kitchenette—Louis made a triumphant whoop, making Zayn jump slightly on his chair.

“It’s done. And I’m like 99,9% sure it’s gonna work. And 100% sure it’s not gonna fry your brain,” Louis said, leaning back on the couch. He placed the laptop on the box/table and pushed it slightly in Niall’s direction.

“That’s really reassuring,” Niall mumbled. “What do I have to do?”

“Exactly what you did earlier with the Jarvis file. You have to click this,” Louis pointed at something on the screen, “and it’s gonna work just like the previous one but it’s gonna be deleting things instead of uploading them to your brain.”

Niall nodded, grabbing the computer in front of him.

“Wait, I need to get away from here,” Louis said, standing up. “It is safe for you but might not be for someone without the device. So I’d rather not be here when you start, because I wouldn’t be able to restrain my curiosity not to look. And you should move, too.”

Those words were aimed at Zayn, who was sitting as close to Niall as the couch armrest let him, wanting to be close to him during this whole thing. Tearing his eyes from Louis, Zayn looked at his boyfriend a bit panicked. The latter only smiled at him reassuringly, whispering, “Don’t worry, I’ll be fine,”before Zayn finally got up and joined Louis.

Taking a deep breath, Niall said, “OK, let’s get rid of this shite.” And opened the file.

For a second or two nothing was happening. But then the screen lighted up, brightly enough to illuminate Niall’s face. His jaw was clenched as he stared at the screen without blinking. Zayn couldn’t help but think about how Niall told him about the moment he found the first file and how hurtful that was. He hated the probability that this is what Niall was going through now as well. And he hated that it was the only way.

Another few seconds had passed before the unusually brightness had disappeared. Raising his hands, Niall pressed them to his temples, letting out a small whimper. Automatically, Zayn took a step forward, wanting to approach him. He couldn’t because Louis’ grabbed him by the arm, making him stay in place.

“Don’t,” he said quietly. “I know it feels like shit just watching him, but we shouldn’t disrupt the process. He has to go through this.”

Gritting his teeth, Zayn stared at Louis, considering whether he should listen to him or not. It felt horrible, just standing there, not being able to help. But maybe Louis was right and if Zayn interrupted something, Niall would have to go through this whole thing again. So he stayed.

He stayed in place for another agonisingly long minute, but after another whine escaped Niall’s mouth and his body went loose as he slid down the couch, Zayn yanked his arm out of Louis’ grip. His stomach dropped, blood was rushing in his veins as he closed the distance between him and Niall.

“Niall, babe,” Zayn said, his voice trembling almost as much as his hands. Gently touching Niall’s pale cheek, he tried to wake him up. “Come on, wake up. Don’t scare me like that.”

Zayn heard a quiet groan, before Niall twitched. Slowly, he blinked his eyes open. It took him a moment to focus on Zayn’s face hovering above him.

“What happened?” Niall asked, furrowing his brows in confusion.

“You passed out,” Zayn said. “How do you feel?”

“I—” Niall started. Before he even finished the sentence, his eyes widened in shock. He pulled himself into a seated position rather rapidly, the movement making him close his eyes and clutch at his head with a hand that wasn’t gripping the back of the couch.

“Easy, babe,” Zayn put a hand on Niall’s back, to steady him. “What happened?”

“It worked,” Niall mumbled, more to himself than to the others. Lifting his head up, he looked at Zayn and a tired smile slowly bloomed on his lips. “Fuck, Zayn—It really worked. It’s gone. It’s all gone and… oh my god, it’s so quiet.”

From where Zayn was kneeling by the couch, he wrapped Niall in a tight hug, pulling him closer and kissing the top of his head. He exhaled properly, not even aware of the fact that he had been holding his breath.

“I’m so happy, Niall,” he whispered in Niall’s hair.

After a moment or two, Niall leaned away from him. The colour was back on his cheeks and the happy smile changed into something more like a smirk. Pressing a quick kiss to Zayn’s lips, Niall said quietly, “Now that I don’t have the supercomputer I really need to find that radioactive waste to impress you, don’t I?”

Shaking his head in disbelief, Zayn moved his hands to cup Niall’s face, not able to stop a laugh that bubbled out of his chest.

“You’re completely fucking mad!” Zayn chuckled, brushing his thumbs across Niall’s cheeks. “I’m already in love with you, you don’t have to impress me anymore!”

It took him a moment to realise what he had just said. But even then he wasn’t going to take anything back. Partially because he realised it was completely true and partially because Niall’s eyes brightened in a way that took Zayn’s breath away and he didn’t want it to ever end. 

But before either of them could say anything more, someone clapped their hands together, startling them and making Zayn turn around to find the source of the noise.

It was Louis—about whose presence Zayn had long forgotten. The Fierce Fairy’s face looked rather unamused, but his eyes had that weird spark in them that made Zayn believe he wasn’t really mad.

“OK, that was intense!” Louis said loudly. “Anyone wants a beer?”

“Lou, it’s not even noon,” Liam pointed out from where he was sat by the table.

“Well, I don’t care,” Louis answered, already making his way towards the fridge. “The lads over there had their happy end and I’ve just killed Jarvis, so I’m mourning and deserve alcohol. Do you always have to be a fucking killjoy, Payno?”


End file.
